A miniature portrait between the pages of a book and a loosely-drawn eye on every corner of every paper ever handed to me– there are images in my mind that need an escape. An escape from reality.

 Idealization. A mix of beauty and the fantastical. I make work for those who fell down the rabbit hole and never left; those who went inside the wardrobe and chose to stay. Magic exists everywhere to me; it exists in the columns of my papers; it exists in every brushstroke of oil paint and every digital pencil mark. It exists when I put on my headphones and crank the volume up, closing my eyes and entering the film world inside my brain that is directed by each musical note that enters my system. My hands start drawing this world without me noticing. Pencil drawn characters turn into paint; turn into eternal imprints of my world: my fantasy and reality merging into one. A magical bridge between past and future; I blend the traditional with the modern; paint and technology. A digital sketch and then oil paint layered on panel makes my characters feel real–tangible. It turns them from an idea living in an infinite digital world to a portrait you can touch, into something so reminiscent of real people in history.

Everything tells a story. Fairy tales don’t have to be impossible, you just have to want. I want to live a life in a fantasy realm, in a world full of wonder. Dragons and fairies– they all exist in the shapes between trees and the cracks in the earth. We’re all elves– the tips of our ears have been cut off and with them gone our child-like sense of adventure. What ever happened? The universe is too complex to lead a linear life. It’s hard to stop believing in magic when there is magic every day and everywhere we look.