14088831

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above,
Would drain the Ocean Dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.

I'm an artist from Southern California. Born in San Diego, I've lived all over the United States, California, Utah, Iowa, Texas and now Florence, Italy. Art has always been a passion of mine and primarily I'd been self taught with a little bit of formal training, until moving to Italy. I started chalk painting in 2000 when coaxed into the art form by my friend in Orange County, California Chris Bennett. I took to the art form very quickly and I've painted at the numerous festivals around the states. All the festivals inspired me to venture to paint at the international street painting festival in Grazie di Curtatone, Italy, in August of 2002. I've done close to 100 steet paintings so far. Additionally, I had the privilege of being one of 3 featured artists at the first ever street painting festival in Istanbul, Turkey, June 2004.
That first experience in Italy changed everything for me. I was so overwhelmed by Italy and the fact that I'd realized my true love of art; I decided to sell everything and move to Florence, Italy to further my art skills and become a full time artist. I graduated December 2006 from the prestigious Angel Academy of Art, Florence, where I studied classical realism with a long term goal of portraiture and fine art figure painting in the traditions of the masters. Most of the work I did in Florence is collected in a book I produced called, Select Works From Florence- a Three and a Half Year Journey, which is available through my website .
Art for me is more than just paint on the tip of my brush being applied to a cavas. It's looking for the subtle things that make our world so beautiful. The texture of a well-worn piece of wood to the soft highlight of a cheek bone in front of an eye socket, our world is charged with beauty. I believe it is the job of an artist to seek out that beauty and share it. I love life. I love sucking the marrow out of it. Traveling to different countries has opened my eyes to how amazing this world of ours is. I'm tired of negative things. I'm want to be about the positive and I want my art to reflect that.
One of the major things I've come to understand in this world is that it's not an us and them. Like United States and Europe, or China, or Africa... it's an Us and Us. We're all on this ride together. I became a Christian a long time ago and my hope is that the people I meet would be inspired to know Christ like I do. He's my best friend and has given me more freedom than I ever imagined possible.
Here are my websites:
www.mcoriginals.com - fine art, paintings, drawings
www.chalkpainting.com - Italian street paintings