The best art bridges the gaps between genres and media, drawing together many different sources into a single piece.

Towards this end, I find it useful to work with many different aesthetic and conceptual vocabularies across several different artistic identities. My work includes everything from graphic design to bronze casting; defining a consistant overarching stylistic schema may prove difficult, if not impossible.

DESIGN

Kotan- it means 'elegant simplicity' in Japanese. What I hope to achieve with my graphic design is harmony between pictorial and textual elements by erasing the borders between illustration and design - while imbuing my work with the principle of kotan.

I owe a great deal of my design sense to my older brother Anthony, an architectural historian whose focus is the 20th century. Through the course of his studies, he introduced to me an enormous amount of 2D and 3D designers from throughout the last century. The three most influential of these were Mod designers Ernest Trova, Victor Vasarely, and Peter Max. Blending these sources as well as a mix of early modernism and Arts Deco and Nouveau, my design aesthetic involves the interaction of man with machine and man with society.

Of the many visual motifs I use, chief among them is the mandala. These mandalas were influenced in large part by patterns used by Buddhist monks as meditational aids. While the role of the original was to teach patience and total physical awareness, my mandalas function as an aesthetic focus, directing the viewer's attention either in towards or outwards from the subject matter.

FINE ARTS

For a majority of my schooling, my focus was on fine art. Since childhood, I was enrolled in various art programs, both public and private.

For the most part, My fine art is about the pursuit of aesthetic beauty. I leave the statement-making to my illustrations and design. Although sometimes a little opinion may slip through, mostly I like to make pretty things.

I also enjoy exploring the realm of functional art; in fact, many of my fine art pieces are lamps.

I place a great deal of emphasis on texture and shape.Some motifs seen in my graphic design are repeated in my fine art. My mandalas, for example, are here as painted abstracts, which form a part of lightbox constructions.

And although I use techniques similar to my illustrations, the purpose of my fine art is aesthetic appreciation as opposed to the communication of a narrative.

ILLUSTRATION

My illustration was influenced a great deal by sequential art. I was a late bloomer as far as the comic book industry is concerned - having only discovered them in my early teen years. At first, I was attracted to the flashier art-driven titles pioneered by Image et al. over the more content-rich books from the older companies. But as I matured, so did my tastes. Eventually, my friends turned me on to the great masterpieces of graphic literature.

My work draws from comic book artists such as Frank Miller (Ronin), Enki Bilal (Nicopol Trilogy), and Hiroaki Samura (Blade of the Immortal); my gag strip influences are Red Meat, Life in Hell, and Tom Tomorrow.

One of the key themes that I explore in my non-sequential illustrations is the dubious effects of modern life on humankind. Some of these effects are obvious, like corporate greed or the failure of feminism - while some effects are less overt, like the daily isolation faced by average people. I feel it is my duty to remind you of the potency of these effects while lampooning the hell out of them.