I was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1981. My memories of childhood are flooded with happiness: Summer days cycling along the coast with my family - and then pedaling like crazy to get home before the rain came pouring down. The fun was getting caught in the rain and barely being able to keep on the bike because we were laughing so hard.
Playing soccer on the front lawn after dinner with the smell of fresh cut grass and my little brother giggling his way down the sidelines with the ball, knowing he was going to put it in the goal past mum. Taking expeditions down to the river behind our house with the other children in the neighborhood, and searching for buried treasure, fossils, or insects. Building forts or tree houses, and boats that would take us down the river to imagined exotic lands.

Coming home from school in the dark of winter and putting on warm clothes, our mother making us hot chocolate with marshmallows, and building Legos by the open fire.

Waking up to find fresh snow outside, and our parents letting us go to school late so we could build a snowman first.

And then there was art - that tranquil place where I always lost myself for hours at a time. All it took was a piece of paper and a pencil or two. Sometimes my brother would join me and we would see who could make the best copy of Disney characters or photographs from a wildlife magazine. I remember with clarity waking up before everyone else on the weekends and sitting at my little blue desk (I was probably seven or eight at the time), painting the view of the neighbor’s back yard which I could see out of our bedroom window.

Indeed, art became my escape. The happiness of childhood was quickly engulfed by the realities of life. My father’s involvement in politics led to his attempted assassination, and my brother, mother, and I were taken hostage by four armed terrorists in our own home one dark November evening when I was 9 years old. My father is a kind and gentle man who felt strongly that he could improve his country. He became quite popular. Unfortunately becoming involved in politics in Northern Ireland during those years was a dangerous pursuit. I thank God that none of us was injured and that my father was away on business in London that fateful evening. However, life changed rapidly after that.

We moved from Northern Ireland to Scotland, Scotland to North Carolina, and from there to Florida within a few short years when I was between the ages of 12 and 16. It was tough to say the least. Overnight it seemed that all that I loved and that was familiar to me was suddenly gone. At the beginning I kept drawing because I always imagined returning to my friends and showing them my work. I used to share it in the school yard, and my art teacher in Northern Ireland had been such an encouragement. I dreamed of going back and showing her my new art, and hearing her reassuring voice.

But it became clear, as little as I wanted it to be true, that those days were over. Upon moving to Florida I enrolled in an art class at high school. I hated it. To be honest, I think I was deeply depressed that year and my spark of creativity seemed to be extinguished. I felt like everything I made was terrible, and that the teacher agreed. Slowly but surely my creative passion seemed to die and instead I decided I should become a doctor like my father. It was more sensible.

And so I dedicated the next five years of my life to getting into medical school, with the dream of returning to the United Kingdom. At the age of 21 I was accepted to study medicine at the University of Sheffield in England. I realized almost immediately upon beginning courses that I had made a mistake. The creative spirit within me which had been forced into submission for the past five years was slowly surfacing once more.

Inspired by the beautiful countryside that was so familiar, I began sketching in my lectures and in the evenings instead of listening and studying. I took long hikes on the weekends through the picturesque Peak District surrounding Sheffield. As I contemplated things on these excursions I knew I was on the wrong career path and decided to quit medical school before the end of year one. I wanted to dedicate myself to creating art, and I would find a way to make that happen.

I returned to the United States in late 2004. Almost three years back in the U.K had made me realize how much I took for granted living in the United States, and I missed my family. I was 23, and creating had become my renewed obsession.

At that time my love of motorcycles and all things mechanical led me to pick up an airbrush. I started painting custom designs on motorcycles and cars, and attended workshops with the top airbrush artists in the world. These were extremely rigorous courses where I learned virtually all of the technical knowledge I now possess. Most of my art prior to this had been created with pencil, and my knowledge of color was minimal. I was fascinated with the realism that could be achieved with the airbrush, and over the next few years made it my goal to achieve photo-realism in my work.

In 2008 I achieved this goal, and over the next years created a number of photorealistic paintings. As I had been working on this artistic goal I was introduced to the art of digital printmaking through one of the workshops I attended. I purchased my own equipment in 2007 and began printmaking for other artists and galleries as I worked on my own art. I mention this because it was an important turning point in my art career as it enabled me to shift my focus from custom painting vehicles to expending all of my creative energy in the fine art realm. Most significantly it introduced me to a myriad of talented artists, artistic styles, and a wide variety of mediums.

Although it was certainly a challenge to become adept as a photorealist, the style left little room for expression during the actual painting process. Often after spending weeks on a photorealistic work I would crave being able to release and express part of myself while creating.

Thus began my exploration of landscapes and abstraction in early 2009. It was instant addiction. As I began painting with traditional brush, memories of the countryside in the United Kingdom began to flood back, and I found myself painting from these memories. The work you see today is the result of these memories, emotions, colors, and layers all filtered through my mind and on to the canvas. Thus some are purely abstract, while others are more representational, and my work continues to evolve around this theme. As I continue on this artistic journey it is my hope to create works that are at once beautiful and timeless, some merely suggesting reality. I leave the viewer to discover a place of his or her own, perhaps a fleeting glimpse of a place remembered or the eternal that awaits.