As long as I can paint I will never need therapy. A brush and canvas are my tools for exploration, reflection and meditation.

Improvisation is key in my unplanned paintings. Paint splashes and drips are worked into strange environments, and crude brush strokes are refined to reveal the hideously charming inhabitants of the weird world that exists in my subconscious. The quick drying time of acrylic paint facilitates this haphazard approach in which emerging images and characters are often devoured by more paint, only to be reinterpreted and transformed into something new.

Each painting is a journey for me, and as its meaning is decoded the image grows sharper and the colors more vivid. I hope the viewer can lose themselves in these paintings just as I have while creating them.

I was born in San Diego in 1978, and in many ways I have not changed in my 30+ years of life. I still love to scribble and bang on anything within arm’s reach, just like I always have. Making album covers and fliers for various bands I was playing drums in during high school and college sparked my interest in pursuing a career in graphic design. In 2005 I graduated from Platt College in San Diego with a B.S. degree in design only to discover I was sick of sitting behind a computer. I needed to make something with my hands.

Shortly after graduation I started drawing again on a regular basis, and in 2007 I made the decision to shift my focus from design to fine art and illustration. It was around this same time that I was given the nickname, Teddy Pancake, which I adopted for my art. Changing my signature symbolized my new approach, and this peculiar moniker seems to compliment the absurd quality found in my art, while always reminding me not to take myself too seriously. My first acrylic paintings were executed in 2008, and since 2010 I have been working mostly in an unplanned, free manner that I call “exploratory painting.”

In order to devote myself to art full time I relocated in 2011, and I now live and work on 40 acres at the end of a long dirt road, in the high-desert of southern California. I am available for commercial opportunities, commissions and gallery shows.

The Park Gallery Presents Paintings & Performances by Aesthetigeist
Saturday, February 11, 2012, 7:00pm - 11:00pm

The Park Gallery
4325 Park Blvd., San Diego, CA