The Obanoth
I'm a painter currently living in Los Angeles. My work is defined by technique in application and dynamic color stories, usually with a focus on subjects such as animals, bodies close-up, food, or objects.
My paintings are layers of independent shapes, stacked precisely to imply light, texture, and form. Careful color shifts and loud punches of contrasting hues result in harmony and vibration. Acrylic paint is my preferred medium, and I choose to create on wooden surfaces, as the smoothness best lends itself to the clean and precise marks that make up my work's visual geometry. My paintings are designed to exist carefully between mechanical and fluid, representational and abstracted.
The subjects I choose to paint provide me with an opportunity to find unique ways to present things that are more or less familiar. I like exploring visual concepts of wetness, softness, and hardness without being too caught up in realism-- using loosely familiar subject matter provides me with freedom to play with paint application and energetic color.
Though I'm originally from Ohio, I currently live and create in Highland Park, CA. I've got a rescue rabbit that lives in my studio and watches me paint, and my time outside of work is spent cooking, making cocktails, and exploring the city.