I’ve been in love with the urban landscapes of West Oakland since I moved here in 2000. Back then I painted the buildings and streets that inspired me; today they’re finding their way into my work via photos I take that get manipulated in photoshop, printed and then collaged into my work.
There is something haunting and poignant about the buildings and industrial spaces in urban areas—I had the same fascination with these places back when I lived in Chicago, over 20 years ago now. The industrial architecture in Bucktown was ripe with examples of Nature’s triumph over man’s discarded constructions…some of those areas still exist today but many of the obsolete buildings have been torn down and replaced with massive stores and shopping areas. When these buildings become obsolete, they’ll be torn down and replaced with something else, so the places where faded industry is being slowly subsumed by the natural world are a dwindling legacy of a time when the pace of life was much slower than today.
