I often travel in order to photograph the landscapes and skyscapes that are my primary source material. I spent the Summer of 2006 in Nebraska "Storm Chasing", and the Fall of 2007 documenting California wildfires. The experience of witnessing the spectacles that I paint firsthand is essential. I often take thousands of photographs, which I then manipulate in order to create the paintings. Being out in nature as the storm rolls in is exhilarating and humbling. To me, the first hand account of what I hope to capture is the basis for everything.

In this respect, my work falls within the tradition of the Hudson River School painters, who spent ample time in the very places they depicted. In the same vein, I dramatize my sources to create drama and impact in order to instill a sense of awe in the viewer. Danto sums up this idea in his Encounters and Reflections: Art in the Historical Present:

"The landscapes we represent are in effect texts in which our feelings and beliefs about nature, and hence about ourselves as inside and outside nature, are inscribed."

I use image manipulation and scale to talk about the different ways we experience landscape “second hand”. As a reference to apocalyptic science fiction, I often combine elements from different landscapes in order to create a "future view" of what a place might look like. For example, skies from Nebraska are often paired with the desert hardpan of the Mojave. In the small works, scale refers to media images of disasters. The image is scaled down into neat little squares and rectangles for consumption and dissemination. I also make large-scale works that reference historical landscape painting.

Asher B. Durand, who led the Hudson River School after Thomas Coles death, states, "The external appearance of this our dwelling place, apart from its wondrous structure and functions that minister to our well-being, is fraught with lessons of high and holy meaning, only surpassed by the light of Revelation." As transcendentalists, the Hudson River School artists believed that the divine could be witnessed through personal experiences in nature, and they held themselves socially responsible for the protection of these "temples". As a chronicler and painter of the Yellowstone and The Grand Teton wilderness, artist Thomas Moran was largely responsible for convincing Congress to set aside these lands as National Parks.

I see myself functioning as a bookend to this movement...while beautiful wilderness areas have been preserved, the planet as a whole is in dire need of protection. If the transcendental painters of the American West believed we could see Gods greatness in nature, perhaps today they would see Gods wrath in the destructive forces of Global Warming. As an artist and an environmentalist, I travel many of the same philosophical roads the Hudson River School painters did...but instead of seeking out the most beautiful places, I seek disaster. I do however, paint these scenes for many of the same reasons they did: to raise awareness, to focus on our shared landscape, to inspire awe in the face of planetary destruction.