I was born and raised in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad & Tobago. My beloved uncle, Patrick Chu Foon, an acclaimed Trinidadian painter and sculptor, nurtured my artistic abilities from early childhood to my late teens, and guided my initial involvement in the fine arts, beginning with my first showing of a pastel on paper still-life at age thirteen, displayed at a group exhibition held at the National Museum & Art Gallery of Trinidad & Tobago. I relocated to New York City in 1989 and completed a BFA Fine Arts degree at the School of Visual Arts in 1999.

An early series of paintings explored the range of emotions and possible narratives transmitted through the male model’s gaze, edited from various sources of entertainment and fashion magazines. The result was an investigation of the manipulation, construction and presentation of the modern male image in contemporary mass urban media and pop culture. Associated with this concept are the notions of desire, voyeurism, narcissism and subliminal messaging.

I was attempting to gain control over and capture the overwhelming abundance of seductive printed material that confronted me daily through the power of advertising specifically geared towards a style and fashion conscious audience. The end result was a reinterpretation of the found content onto canvas.

In 2010 I decided to focus on a new series of work. This different process enabled me to combine my knowledge of graphic design and fine art; to unite the bold, arresting, and instantaneous visual qualities of communication design with painterly aspects such as line, color, composition, balance, unity, and space. The result was a form of collage and a visual representation reminiscent of and inspired by Pop Art, utilizing fine art paper, an X-Acto knife, and an archival acid-free spray adhesive.

Using this technique, I first drew outlines of the essential pictorial elements found within the images I chose to work from, concentrating on areas of shadow and contrast. The line drawings were transferred to the combination of art papers I selected. I used a sharp blade to precisely cut out the various shapes from the different colored papers, resulting in an array of seemingly unrelated pieces of paper. As these numerous abstract, and at times almost minute, cut-out elements were carefully arranged on board, the images slowly and progressively began to take form and morph into the final compositions - this was always a very exciting phase.

Among my forever creative influences and art heroes are my uncle Patrick Chu Foon, Peter Minshall, Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Tom of Finland, Jeff Koons, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Vincent Van Gogh, Jackson Pollock, Cindy Sherman, Jean-Paul Goude, Jean Dubuffet, Stanley Kubrick, Frida Kahlo, Mark Rothko, Alexander McQueen, Issey Miyake, Francis Bacon, Franz Kline, Rei Kawakubo, Amedeo Modigliani, Paul Cézanne , Pierre et Gilles, Edward Hopper, Alice Neel, Hieronymus Bosch…

I am currently exploring digital collage and imagined landscapes.

Thank you for visiting!