Statement about Breakthrough: After many years of traditional classic portraiture, I decided to do my next body of work, The Ancestor Series, in mixed media. It was awkward getting used to in a representational format, rather than an abstract one, and I learned several things alont the way. While a lot is still experimental, I am enjoying being able to tell a story, even with parts of it hidden.

Statement about Breakthrough: This painting is a rendering of the Conodoguinet Creek, near the home that I grew up in. The intent was to capture the light of the evening when the sun catches the mist that begins to settle at night. Swimming in the creek in the evenings as a kid, I told myself that I wanted to try to paint it one day. The breakthrough aspect of the piece is that I typically paint smaller, and usually stay away from sunset paintings. Because of how much fun this painting was to create, I'll be moving toward painting larger pieces and attempting to capture more sunsets in the future.