My paintings are stage-set like tableaux that thematically explore allegorical relationships between nature and man-made architectural/design forms. The culturally derived forms mimic natural forms and pay homage to the life cycle. The formal and metaphorical connections in each series of paintings and works on paper are collage-like in format, depicting images saved from documentary current-events photos, contemporary design and fashion magazines. I fuse abstraction, out-of-scale relationships and implausible fictions. Interiors and figurative elements intermingle with the aesthetic and destructive forces of nature. The undercurrent directing the work is a sense of “memento mori,” the awareness that all is transitory. To soften the gloom of the subject of fragility, the catastrophic, the “passing of life,” I exaggerate with opposite images of folly, grandeur and a kind of joy in vanity.