My current series of "Painted Florals" shows a strong affinity for both baroque and contemporary art that reflects my pursuit of the 17th century Dutch masters deep understanding of the sensitivity and power of light. This has resulted in a unique lighting style, in part, created through the use of many personally fabricated lights that assist in optically enhancing the viewer's sense of three-dimensional depth perception. Separating highlight from shadow, and transmitted and reflected light, these hand-crafted lights produce beautifully hypnotic imagery. The complex play of color, texture, and depth is further augmented with the incorporation of my hand painted subjects and backgrounds, in order to blend two mediums together creating an illusion of a new reality within the photographic moment. All work seen here has been completed in my TriBeca studio between 2016 and 2017.