ARTIST STATEMENT My paintings are a reflection of my profound interest in ancient knowledge, kept timeless and fascinatingly accessible, even today. I am intensely moved by the notion of a "connector"- an umbilical cord, if you will- which joins us to knowledge harnessed in the distant past and simultaneously propels us into the future. It is the connecting lines that provide impetus for the art work I develop. I believe the authentic, genuine following of our path along this cord enables us to create our own fingerprint, in essence those lines which define our genuine selves, lines which lead to our own lives and include, for instance, our dreams, memories and anger. My art is the visual representation of these lines, the cord, the joining and entanglement of our own selves with others and with life itself. The organic stamp of one’s self has become a central theme in my work. As an immigrant, my experiences and life long journey of remaining true to my own path/cord and reconciling the past, bleed into my art and are in fact inextricable from the creative passion I put forward in my paintings. Utilizing oils, wax and (sometimes) photography, I express the ennui, the searching, the connecting of the cord or lines of our lives, as well as the moody ambiguity of the fog of our existence. The wax in particular enables me to express the depths and distances of time. Similar to Picasso's belief that painting is another form of diary keeping, I too feel that I leave my experiential imprint as an artist and humanist in my paintings.