Many artists forget the reason why they are making art, music, scale models, writing stories, etcetera. We all know artists have a need to make things. But in addition to making something that accurately depicts our place in time, art's true benefit to society is provoke thought and initiate conversation with other people. If the art doesn't do this, it fails.
If you have something displayed in your house, when a visitor sees it for the first time, do they 'simply acknowledge it' or mention something about it? - Wayne Hoey

"Remember rule number one: Creative license will be revoked for non-use" - Wayne Hoey

"Art is something you make for yourself, when you start selling it, you have to call it something else" - Andy Warhol

Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1957, I first studied painting professionally with noted artist/illustrator Rafael DeSoto at his studio in Bellport, Long Island, NY. Later I attended the School of Visual Arts and Virginia Commonwealth University earning a degree. While still a student, I began exhibiting my work at Richmond's Anderson Gallery along side other artists. In 1984, I relocated to New York where I began using the Art Students League of NY as a second studio to gain mastery of painting the human form. When I started a family in 2003, he moved to New Jersey where I lived until 2023. I currently live in Charleston, SC where it's mild weather, friendly people and easy lifestyle is welcome.

I consistently try to blend idea art with the figure. Lately I focus on drawing and painting the female figure, often nude. I think if you look at work of art, and it does not accurately depict our approximate date we live in, it fails. Nostalgia has no place in art. My figures are often juxtaposed against the harsh contrast of natural and artificial worlds. I separate the figures from their surroundings within the image by color and scale; and in doing so, creates what I refer to as layers of consciousness. You can see this development with layered content as far back as 1978. In my work, the foreground and backgrounds are interchangeable with neither dominating the canvas. Each painting (usually) portrays only 1 person shown from different view points, and these subjects are lost in thought in the minutiae of everyday life. My meditative approach directs viewers to ask large questions about their existence which is amplified by the contrast of natural world.

I begin each work from charcoal drawings, props, photos and live models. As a painting progresses, a story line emerges inspired by imagination and the various subjects at hand. Images, thoughts and environments accumulate. There is an ongoing transformation of form, subject and color throughout.

During the 1980s and 1990s, I had several important exhibitions in commercial galleries including PS 122 Gallery (1989 New York) where I exhibited 29 works and shared the gallery with other artist: Mike Love. I've also exhibited on several occasions with sculptor Kurt Novak at OneTwentyEight Gallery (1988 New York) in the lower east side of New York. When I still lived in NJ, I often exhibited locally at the Hamilton Street Gallery (2006, 2007, New Jersey). My work is featured in private collections in the USA, and Brazil.

In 2023, I was a month long guest at South Porch Artist colony in Charleston, SC. I look forward to begin showing again in my new home in Charleston, SC and meeting new friends that support the arts.