Every painting begins with a question I can't put down. Why we reach for one another, and why we wound each other. What we inherit, and what we choose. Where the self ends and everyone else begins.

I was raised between Europe and America, and spent my childhood in front of Renaissance altargieces, gilded icons, and abstract canvases that refused to explain themselves. The saints taught me that a single gesture can carry a lifetime of meaning. The abstract painters taught me that meaning doesn't always need a face. I've been moving between those two worlds ever since.

The Ardor Project takes its name from the Latin ardere: to burn. I founded it when I finally admitted that my passion for making art and telling stories wasn't a phase or a pastime. It was a fire, and it wasn't going out.

Painting, charcoal, and collage are where I go to think. Some pieces arrive with a poem attached. Others remain unfinished conversations, and I've learned to let them stay that way.