In recent years, I've returned to painting. I've been a graphic designer with my own companies for the past 30 years. My work has always tended toward hard-edge, color-block design and that is showing up in my fine art as well. I'm influenced by the intersection of architecture, graphic design, and mid-century modern artwork. Light and shadow also play a key role in my paintings. I start my fine art process by designing on the computer and selecting a palette of 8-12 colors. I lay out and transfer the design onto the cradled panel and paint each color. It's a painstaking and precise process to get clean edges on each color block. I do retain some brush strokes in the work so that it's obvious that an actual person painted this. I don't want it to be absolutely perfect. My wife, Carrie MaKenna, is also a fine artist and we bounce ideas and color palettes off one another. I'm also the sole proprietor of R Design LLC. Founded in 2007, a full-service graphic design studio specializing in the design of identity and logomarks, print collateral, and environmental/signage design.