The Work

Most of my work is about identity and trying to break through barriers blocking one’s growth that seem to be more elaborate than one imagined.

Many of my pieces often have something obstructing the view so that the patron can not get a clear sight of the canvas. In a way, the obstacle personalizes the painting since each patron will have to adjust their viewing position (because of the person’s varying height) to see behind the first layer. 

In other works, I cut, pierce, or add structures to the canvas itself.  This draws attention away from the surface of painting and implies that there is also something behind the painting. What is behind the painting is up to the patron’s discretion. 

Some of my art has a current events feel to it. I try to use art to comment on the culture that chaotically swirls around us.

My art ideas mainly come from my background in psychology. I have a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and I am currently an associate professor of psychology at St. Francis University in Loretto, PA.

During my education I began having ideas about various art pieces that related to issues of identity, self-exploration, and obstacles toward personal growth. Because the main research method was attempting to describe "the things themselves," I, initially, was interested in poetry. I wrote prolifically, but published only a few poems.

As my poetry changed from free verse to rhyme, a natural transition took me into music. I learned to play guitar as an avenue to write songs. I’ve written over 40 songs.

In the last several years, I have become more involved in the visual arts and have won several awards at regional shows for my abstract and conceptual pieces. I have recently published “An Artist’s Thought Book: intriguing thoughts about the artistic process.”  

This book contains a series of numbered aphorisms about five major topics:

• the nature of creativity,
• what it means to be an artist,
• how one can find one’s voice in music,
• what the poet is trying to accomplish,
• and how to find one’s muse while painting.

In 2006, fellow artist Phil Brulia and I founded the Ebensburg Art Alliance, a group of artists that meets monthly, to promote and to encourage artists in our region.

Bio Notes 

I was born in Delaware, Ohio, in the early '70s. My parents were blue collar people who stressed hard work and getting an education. I had no artistic interests early in life but rather preferred athletics.

At 20, I had a motorcycle accident that temporarily hindered my athletic interests and allowed me to concentrate on my studies enough that I was able to gain entrance into graduate school at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.

Duquesne’s psychology program consisted of a rare form of psychology called “existential phenomenology.”  Many of my fellow students and I were transformed by the ideas of this psychology which concentrates on finding the meaning of one’s individual existence (the existential part) as well as learning to faithfully describe psychological experiences (the phenomenological part).

My dissertation, for example, gathered together and analyzed people’s descriptions of being bored with their lives.  Many of us found that our education had fostered a new interest in creating art. By attempting to describe something faithfully, one becomes sensitive to overlooked details that are typically lost in everyday life.

Since those beginnings in graduate school I have written poems and short stories, learned guitar, written songs, and produced works of art. I always felt that I was more gifted with words but I have been encouraged by early successes with some of my art work.  I currently am an associate professor of psychology at Saint Francis University.