Artist Profile Questions and snapshots

recently asked to answer the following questions (sorry for the typos.. )

the images attached are works in progress.

• What are some of the influences on your work and artistic practice? my father, ron bechet, raymond saunders, are all influences of mine. music is a HUGE influence of mine..the advent of music on demand such as pandora and spotify has made it possible to play whatever music i want while i work and it creates or stimulates the mood in which i find it most comfortable to create (or uncomfortable as the case may be sometimes) 

• What drives you as an artist? What are you passionate about that you’re able to express through your art? i am driven by a desire to create....plain and simple. i create becuase i feel a need to.. i create because i believe the world is filled with consumers and i have a duty to bring balance to the universe (only half joking) im passionate about the human condition and am on a quest to find ways to deal with that more directly as i develope my artistic vocabulary. 

• Tell us about your current projects. working on a body of work that Im tentatively calling the Lies we believe.. the pieces are a process in themselves.. starting with digital collage combining European and African (or other tribal masks) and pasting in modern / contemporary iconography and objects. the pieces are then printed into an analog form and fixed to wood.. where i paint and collage into them EVEN more. ... (running the risk of over-killing them.. im simplifying the time i put into each step as to not make the images TOO dense or crowded... ) i then take the painted images and photograph or scan them BACK into the computer where i have begin do create digital drawings of the paintings using carefully selected brushed and a pressure sensitive Wacom