How would you describe your work?

My work is mainly character-based and captures the human element of the California surf culture. I enjoy taking subtle but emotional face gestures I notice and implementing them into my compositions. I also explore the wacky and sometimes surreal moments in my life and imagination. It’s exciting to hear people’s reactions when they experience my artwork because they often seem to see or experience it in a different way than I intended. Art has given me autonomy by allowing me to create my own world.

Where did you develop your style?

I grew up skateboarding, and my dad would take me on road trips to different skate parks. During those trips, I always saw exciting street art as well as artwork on skate decks and magazines. Bold graphic styles and some of the funkier outsider artwork was the kind of stuff I liked. I remember my dad bought me a Jim Philip’s art book and I was just blown away by his characters and his impressive line work. I started drawing cartoons and focused a lot on faces. I was fascinated by how adding a simple line would change whole vibe of the character. Later, I played with putting onesies on some of my figures because I liked the contrast between the bodies and faces. It really highlighted the character’s expression. It was much later that I actually started drawing surfers in wetsuits, which fit right into the style. My dad is a painting contractor, and I worked under his wing for years, learning how to use a brush and get smooth straight lines, which is how I’m able to get clean lines in my paintings.

You seem pretty hands on with your process. Can you walk us through that?

Working in the trades and building surfboards for the last decade has helped me develop an array of skills that I now use to for everything from cutting wood panels, painting, and varnishing to the framing and hardware. I went back to school for graphic design, and it opened up all sorts of doors as far as expanding my skillset. Working digitally has been a great experience because I’ve been able to develop my style and do some interesting stuff. I’m continually learning new things, for example I wanted to control the quality of my prints so now I print everything in-house.