Playing with Fire Series
Playing with Fire examines how access to knowledge is shaped, limited, and controlled. Using trompe l’oeil painting, I depict stacks of books seen from above, tightly cropped so that titles, edges, and bands of color are only partially visible. This compressed viewpoint reflects the ways information is often encountered today—fragmented, edited, and incomplete.
Each work focuses on books that have been challenged or banned in the United States, frequently for addressing themes such as race, gender identity, sexuality, or belief systems that challenge dominant narratives. By abstracting these texts into planes of color and partial language, the paintings explore how complex ideas are flattened or obscured when they are deemed controversial or unacceptable. The illusion of realism draws viewers in, while the withheld information reinforces the tension between visibility and restriction.
Although I am primarily a painter, the strategies used in this series extend beyond the canvas. Two sculptural works, Balancing Act and Pyre, operate as quiet conceptual counterparts to the paintings, translating the same concerns into physical form. Across media, cropping, compression, and material restraint function as deliberate devices, reinforcing the experience of limitation. Influenced by the color relationships of Josef Albers, the spatial dynamics of Hans Hofmann, and the illusionistic precision of William Harnett, the work moves between naturalism and abstraction.
Playing with Fire considers the cultural consequences of restricting access to ideas, inviting viewers to reflect on what is lost when knowledge is filtered, constrained, or removed from public discourse.
Each work focuses on books that have been challenged or banned in the United States, frequently for addressing themes such as race, gender identity, sexuality, or belief systems that challenge dominant narratives. By abstracting these texts into planes of color and partial language, the paintings explore how complex ideas are flattened or obscured when they are deemed controversial or unacceptable. The illusion of realism draws viewers in, while the withheld information reinforces the tension between visibility and restriction.
Although I am primarily a painter, the strategies used in this series extend beyond the canvas. Two sculptural works, Balancing Act and Pyre, operate as quiet conceptual counterparts to the paintings, translating the same concerns into physical form. Across media, cropping, compression, and material restraint function as deliberate devices, reinforcing the experience of limitation. Influenced by the color relationships of Josef Albers, the spatial dynamics of Hans Hofmann, and the illusionistic precision of William Harnett, the work moves between naturalism and abstraction.
Playing with Fire considers the cultural consequences of restricting access to ideas, inviting viewers to reflect on what is lost when knowledge is filtered, constrained, or removed from public discourse.
Trigger Warning Series
My relationship with guns is complicated. As the son of a police officer, I grew up around firearms, yet I do not own one myself. Guns embody an inherent duality—offering comfort to some and fear to others. The same can be said of belief systems and civic structures like the Law and organized religion. Built to uphold order, they can also be used to oppress when stripped of context.
My recent work examines how belief, identity, and violence intersect within American culture. In Making Peace | Piece Maker, a disassembled firearm rests beside a Bible and the U.S. Constitution—each a system of power, each loaded with meaning.
This tension carries through my sculptural works. Southern Comfort turns a gun rack into a gilded relic. If I Die Before I Wake pairs a cast concrete handgun with a soft pillow, contrasting danger and comfort that a bedside weapon offers. American Altar | American Icon transforms a shooting-range stand into a Byzantine shrine, while Open Wound captures the ballistic force of impact in shot ceramic vessels. Holy. Ghost. references the way weapons are worshiped by replacing the consecrated bread with a disassembled 3D-printed ghost gun.
Across these works, I seek to navigate the interplay of comfort and fear, reverence and violence, faith and control. By dismantling systems and their symbols, I aim not to resolve contradictions, but to make them visible—to sit within the tension where belief, identity, and violence converge.
My recent work examines how belief, identity, and violence intersect within American culture. In Making Peace | Piece Maker, a disassembled firearm rests beside a Bible and the U.S. Constitution—each a system of power, each loaded with meaning.
This tension carries through my sculptural works. Southern Comfort turns a gun rack into a gilded relic. If I Die Before I Wake pairs a cast concrete handgun with a soft pillow, contrasting danger and comfort that a bedside weapon offers. American Altar | American Icon transforms a shooting-range stand into a Byzantine shrine, while Open Wound captures the ballistic force of impact in shot ceramic vessels. Holy. Ghost. references the way weapons are worshiped by replacing the consecrated bread with a disassembled 3D-printed ghost gun.
Across these works, I seek to navigate the interplay of comfort and fear, reverence and violence, faith and control. By dismantling systems and their symbols, I aim not to resolve contradictions, but to make them visible—to sit within the tension where belief, identity, and violence converge.
Edges Series
We live in an era flooded with information, yet the sheer volume often hinders our ability to process it all and extract meaning. In our contemporary pursuit of knowledge, there is just too much noise and not enough clarity.
My recent series of trompe l’oeil paintings explores this concept through stacked books viewed from above. The cropped edges of each book hint at partial knowledge and form flat abstracted planes of color and partial pieces of text, evoking the challenge of making sense of fragmented ideas.
Inspired by the abstractions of Josef Albers and Hans Hofmann, as well as William Harnett’s illusionistic trompe l’oeil paintings, I aim to balance naturalism and abstraction. Through this approach, I explore how information overload—and censorship—can obscure truth and stifle the pursuit of wisdom.
My recent series of trompe l’oeil paintings explores this concept through stacked books viewed from above. The cropped edges of each book hint at partial knowledge and form flat abstracted planes of color and partial pieces of text, evoking the challenge of making sense of fragmented ideas.
Inspired by the abstractions of Josef Albers and Hans Hofmann, as well as William Harnett’s illusionistic trompe l’oeil paintings, I aim to balance naturalism and abstraction. Through this approach, I explore how information overload—and censorship—can obscure truth and stifle the pursuit of wisdom.
Mashup Series
In my paintings, I explore the idea of remixed culture by creating “mash-ups” of art historical references, genres, and techniques as metaphors for personal and social commentary. By combining various elements, a visual alchemy occurs that creates a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. These frenetic works are the chaos that is my life; loose strings of relationships, fragments of ideas, all barely held together by humble materials. The codes and anagrams hidden in my work add layers of inquiry about our beliefs and the fragile systems upon which they rest. These works ask questions that do not necessarily have answers.
Naturalism versus abstraction, secularism versus faith, real versus illusion; these juxtapositions are ongoing themes in my work. Hidden in plain sight, riddles are revealed in the layers of painted objects. Beyond the illusion of these paintings, there lies an awareness of the struggle to find new meaning in the collision of old ideas. Like the alchemist, I continue to pursue the elusive.
Naturalism versus abstraction, secularism versus faith, real versus illusion; these juxtapositions are ongoing themes in my work. Hidden in plain sight, riddles are revealed in the layers of painted objects. Beyond the illusion of these paintings, there lies an awareness of the struggle to find new meaning in the collision of old ideas. Like the alchemist, I continue to pursue the elusive.
#decodeRVA
Richmond's identity can be an enigma. The city's past, present and future coexist and collide. This exciting collaborative and interactive art exhibition, called “#decodeRVA", encouraged the public to literally, "Get a clue. Decode. Find the key and unlock your Richmond." Via coded artwork, a website, and hidden clues, husband and wife team, Jeff and Colleen Hall, designed an exhibition where viewers are encouraged to get out and explore the city. Armed with the clues hidden within the artwork, views can literally discover the city as they search for a key and ultimately unlock and reveal a locked painting.
Fragments
This is a new series of daily digital works.
Over the past few years, I have been exploring various aspects of perception, communication, and destruction.
Fragments, like memory, are moments of life and thoughts strung together, juxtaposed creating new interpretations, new meanings.
Over the past few years, I have been exploring various aspects of perception, communication, and destruction.
Fragments, like memory, are moments of life and thoughts strung together, juxtaposed creating new interpretations, new meanings.