Inspiration

All the final art works start life as “finger paintings” - that is, the initial proportions, linework or color schemes are sketched out on a cell phone utilizing an app, and my fingertip…

The depth of the deep black background, combined with the richness of color that is backlit on a cellphone screen inspired me to approach the artworks in that same way and try to capture those qualities in larger forms.

The PokerArt playing card images emerged from a long-standing desire of mine to propose alternative figures for the traditional face cards, and then continue this approach to provide illustrations for all the ‘numbered’ cards as well.

The inspiration took hold in response to a Sketchbook Project offered by the Brooklyn Art Library, which provides artists a creative outlet in the form of a small sketchbook that is then returned to BAL and included in a traveling art show that displays each artists’ work. The scale and format of that book suggested to me a deck of playing cards…