I am a figurative artist. I have studied with some of the most important figurative artists of the 20th century, both at Chelsea School of Art and the Slade School of Fine Art. My work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and I am the recipient of several awards, artist in residencies, and fellowships, including the Cheltenham Fellowship and Artist in Residence at Stroud Museum.

As an artist, I work with satirical themes within a historical precedent, filtered through contemporary actors and staged in theater-like settings that suggest Southern California locations. A narrative that presents itself for re-interpretation is my creative driving force. My compositions are lyrical and robust with complex characters in elaborate costumes interacting in an unconventional environment. My training and intense analysis allows me to direct the stage with a deft touch and keen insight.

As an educator of artists and designers, my ultimate goal is to be able to equip my students with the tools and the freedom to be able to design, build, move, emotionalize and characterize anything they see or imagine. Therefore I find it necessary to teach students the fundamental skills of how to build the human figure from observation as it translates to the language of drawing. This process involves the deconstruction of the human figure into its individual parts and then the synthesis of those parts based on various design principles. The human figure is the most complicated machine ever designed. If you learn to draw the human figure you can build anything.

I am an artist and educator who creates site-specific installations and sculpture. My art practice focuses on strategies that provoke and re-imagine public space. Often, my public interventions engage people with their local environment. I work at Rob Ley Studio, where we design and fabricate large-scale artworks for the public realm. I have been teaching landscape architecture, design and art history for over a decade at various colleges and universities. As an educator, I emphasize experiential learning and collaboration. I aim to create classrooms where students are able to take chances and questions their understandings, while mastering design communication skills.

I am a representational artist utilizing both drawing and painting to explore the themes of my research. As a California native, and specifically from the Los Angeles region, I am continually pondering the issue of place and access…and often access denied. My work examines relationships...between interior and exterior, with and without, as well as the ambiguity of what differentiates insiders from outsiders, whether expressed in the literal spaces we inhabit or the privacy of an ambiguous mental landscape. Strategically omitted elements within the work play upon these themes and allude to the issue of loss.

I am deeply concerned with the potential of narrative in artmaking, and believe the visual arts to be a means of synergistic connection between artist and viewer. Through the development of technique and a personal visual language, an artist develops a means of speaking without words. I am committed to helping students experiment as well as expanding their ability to effectively communicate their ideas.

I have recently shown at Monte Vista Projects, Open Mind Art Space and OXY ARTS in Los Angeles, as well as La Mama Galleria in NYC among other local and national shows.