I am spellbound by the original contemporary music of South Louisiana.

My current work presents musicians in a particular way, unlike film or photographs, more akin in spirit to cubism. But rather than represent a 360-degree view on one plane, they condense my experience of musical performances that occur over a period of time into a single image. My oil paintings make the music tangible.

I attend and observe concerts by my painting subjects over a period of years. While painting, I listen to their songs. Spreading photos of them across the floor, I invoke their presence in my mind like a séance of the living. I begin with a one-color underpainting on canvas then choreograph the light, shadow and composition in many brilliant, mostly translucent, layers of color. Becoming more highly detailed, the work changes dramatically as it progresses. Like a character in a novel, each painting develops its own life.

I paint the persona as much as the person, the performance rather than the portrait. This ethereal aspect appears only while the musician is playing music. A likeness is inherent to the work, but the paintings emphasize what the musician creates as much as what he looks like. My paintings have their own visual melodies.

What makes any one person exceptional? Can it be divined by observation? What does inspiration look like? In a time of imitation and appropriation, I celebrate imagination, mastery and skill. I’m attracted to those who work to the edge of their ability, always taking it further.

While my work deals with specific individuals, it also involves a scene, a milieu, a time and place. It is a privilege to live and work here and now, in this creative mecca that is New Orleans, to paint my visions of places and players who make up its unique musical landscape. My paintings are an invitation into my imagined world that is simultaneously South Louisiana.