Originally from Cincinnati, his work is largely representational, while incorporating abstract passages and paying great attention to surface, texture, and brushwork. He has studied at the Art Academy of Cincinnati, San Francisco City College, Stanford, and the Pacific Art League. Originally drawn to art by his childhood discovery of Magritte, his inspirations have grown to include Titian, Rembrandt, Chardin, Goya, Manet, Courbet, Klee, Morandi, Bischoff, Freud, and Auerbach. He has recently become interested in the narrative implications of all representation, especially of figures in relation to others and to setting. Relationships are constantly at play, among the shapes and marks of the work, between represented objects or figures, and between artwork and viewer.