As I sifted through piles of old sketch books, I came across a watercolor of Hulk Hogan I painted when I was nine years old. This crude painting had me thinking about my childhood, and my childhood heroes. It reminded me of dressing up in a cape, building a ring out of a mattress and pillows, and pretending I was the Macho Man himself. These memories led to my recent purchase of Wrestlemania III, which sparked my current obsession and the beginning of my new series of paintings. 

Viewing wrestling videos and documentaries first inspired me to celebrate and monumentalize those icons of my childhood in paint, but as I actually started painting more was exposed. Those characters of low brow entertainment were being painted into a world of high brow art stroke by stroke. The ideas of nostalgia, pop culture, and investigating subcultures fascinated me. I realized Wrestlemania may have been one of the first reality TV shows ever. An engineered drama that one does not watch for sport, but for the spectacle. Each character from the 1980's WWF plays a role, has a guise, and a unique persona. These actors were the players in my childhood drama, one which coincidentally is a perfect marriage of personal experience and my current artistic sensibilities.