Go ahead. Pull my finger…I just cut the cheese. No, not THAT kind of cheese. I’m talking about the kind of cheese that makes every thing better. What would macaroni be without cheese? A quesadilla…hold the cheese? I don’t think so! Doritos were just another chip until they produced their iconic nacho flavor. Cheese, not only tasty, is the staple ingredient of almost any comfort food, and with good reason. Cheese is the shizzle, yo!

Painting has been a part of my life forever. It’s how I germinate my thoughts, my interests and react to what’s been going on in my world. I’d like to think that I get it all across, but there are just some things that can’t be painted. Wasn’t it the “cheesy” snuggle-rock band Bread who sang, “If a picture paints a thousand words, then why can’t I paint you?” It’s trite, but there is something to it. Not everything is at home on a canvas, a sheet of wood or even smooshed together and then pulled out of a pile of clay. Some things just need to be said. Or typed, as it may be.

Stackin Cheddar

If you know me personally, then you know that I’ve grown up with signs and images constantly in my periphery. Literally, signs and images all around me. I’ve made a living, as has my father, creating signage through our family business. It’s interesting work, but can often be more technical than wholly artistic. But daily I can see things with clients that spark something in my head that might not translate to, or be appropriate for, say a gas station pylon, but there’s something there. It’s like that delicious cheese. It starts as one thing and can develop into something else entirely.

All cheese begins the same way: milk. But depending on how and where it is warmed, coagulated, cooked, curdled, rinsed, ripened, salted, pressed, waxed and so on determines what kind of cheese you end up with. Do you get stinky Limburger, creamy Camembert, marbled Stilton, crumbly Feta or that best cheese of all, Cheddar? My creative processes all begin in the same way too: an idea. What does it become?

I’ve made a lot of cheese and I’m ready to cut it and share. Pull my finger and let’s see what comes out together.