I was born and raised in New Iberia, Louisiana and according to my mother have always held a pencil in the correct way. I have drawn and created art in one form or another since I was a small child. My interest with this place and landscape started as that kid when I would look out the car window and daydream on trips to my Gran's house in Thibodaux, LA. I remember the endless rows of sugar cane fields on Hwy 90 that seemingly moved and followed our car, the cane carts lining up at the mill in Jeanerette during grinding season, the huge oaks and stately homes in Franklin, and the seasonal colors of the cypress swamps near Amelia. These images and memories have stuck with me and have shaped my life as a artist.
There are few places like our state where the cultural and physical landscapes are so closely tied together. I think it is in this context that the real beauty of this place lies, seeing the crawfisherman out in his boat in the early morning, the shrimp boats coming in from a trawl, the reeking scent of burning bagasse on a crisp December day, a slowing moving tractor slewing mud on the road on its way to the mill, and old men drinking beer and sharing stories on a screen porch to escape the summer heat and mosquitos. These are everyday things that are easily taken for granted, and admittedly it took me moving away for a bit to realize how truly special and unique our state is. I now feel compelled to document this changing "landscape". Mother nature, technology and we have shaped this landscape. Sugar cane is now harvested mostly with a combine which has all but eliminated the burning fields, our rural landscape is under constant assault as our cities push farther outward in their unchecked and unregulated growth, and everyday we hear of our disappearing coastal way of life. I often like to paint scenes that can be viewed by daydreamers like me, from the passenger window of a car on a deserted backroad, somewhere in Louisiana.