I’d rather not be indoors while painting, so usually I paint scenarios I long for.

Over the past several years, I have embarked on three bicycle tours exploring 4,000 miles of American desert and coastline, seeking time away from the spectacle of society as well as learning to be quiet in nature. In presenting these distinctly North American landscapes and playscapes, I imagine distant human pasts as well as potentially distant futures.

However, the landscapes do not exist on their own, as American cinema influences the way I see them. Even when I discover a new place, I feel like I am remembering a scene I once saw in a movie. For me, the vast expanses of the western states recall spaghetti westerns, model train worlds, constructed dioramas, and the injustice of Manifest Destiny.

Through the pure wonderment and geology of these landscapes, I construct my own set pieces and myths.