My work is about celebrating the land, what it grows and how it feeds us. I believe my role as an artist in rural America is to cross-pollinate with other cultures, communities, art and artists, youth and technology. With that, I’d like to bring hope and healing. Having worked in Uganda, South Africa, Spain and Costa Rica, I see a movement percolating, similar to American Regionalism which grew out of the Great Depression— but more expressive and more global. That's what I want to be a part of. My aim is to inject a distinctive, engaging energy in my work. I'm inspired by artists Wayne Thiebaud, David Hockney, Charles Burchfield and the Canadian Seven who anchor me. I don't think art has to be happy to be good, but I want mine to be both.