I call my paintings visual haiku after the Japanese poetic tradition of observing nature 'ferociously' until substance gives way to spirit. Like haiku, they are meant to represent moments of heightened awareness and existential beauty. I feel that focusing lavish attention on the mundane often elevates it to the sublime. Objects become complex in proportion to the attention one pays them.

I've used selected natural objects, exaggerated them, and isolated them in an otherworldly landscape, thus creating a realm of virtual reality. Looking at the paintings it is difficult to judge with certainty, the exact spatial relationships between the background and foreground. The physical perspectives are destabilizing, asking the viewer, in their momentary disorientation, to imagine a world governed by laws other than those we deem universal. For me, they evoke an alternative world, composed of imaginary elements and odd juxtapositions, and a sense of being an isolated consciousness in a beautiful, uninhabited universe which is chillingly indifferent to individuals.

My latest Zen Still Life series uses a warm, dark, limited palette of burnt umber, indian red, violet and indigo blue, to isolate ordinary organic and inorganic objects. These harmonious arrangements are designed to evoke a meditative state of mind. In fact, all of the 2007/08 work is part of my Ambient Darkness series, because they were inspired by the months of raining ash created by the Zaca fire, which made for brown skies and bloody sunrises all summer long in central California.

The paintings are notable for their large scale as well as their attention to detail. Each begins with a solid red underpainting, and is built up with many subsequent layers of thin glazes, so that the layers of color underneath reflect through, creating interplay and complexity.

Beauty plays an important role because beauty is its own excuse for being, but the images make a point of its ephemeral nature. There is an ecological sub-text implied by the man-made intrusions into nature and the intimation of decay, passage of time, and global warming. Some images may be interpreted as either pre-historic or post-apocalyptic.

I accentuate the beauty in my observations of my surroundings because as an observer I feel I am fulfilling my highest purpose to the universe. As Allan Watts once said, "The universe is merely using your organism to watch itself."