We all want to believe in impossible things.

I was born just outside Asbury Park, New Jersey in the summer of 1969. As long as I can remember I wanted to be a writer...a musician...a photographer...a painter. I have always felt a strong force lurking under the surface, a deep, powerful need to express my emotions and visions and share them with others.

I studied Mass Communications and Anthropology at Florida State University while continuing my own creative endeavors.My self-imposed creative exile sustained me through 14 years in the Advertising world and ultimately led me to pursue my real passion - painting.

On a trip to San Francisco in 2001, I spent some time browsing the galleries along Geary Street and was completely caught off guard by a painting so captivating and haunting - the likes of which I had never seen.Much like hearing a song for the first time and not being able to get enough of it - I knew instantly I could not live without this beautiful, mesmerizing painting - the thought of losing it made me ill. I desperately tried to rationalize why I had no business buying such a major piece of art. I couldn't put it out of my mind though, no matter how hard I tried. I couldn't eat...I couldn't sleep without the image of this painting entering my mind.

I didn't realize it at the time, but this was the beginning of a new chapter in my life - not only as a collector, but as an artist. That painting spoke to me in ways that I did not yet understand...it calmed my fears and self-doubt and led me to pursue my own art full- time.

I can only hope that my paintings bring joy and inspiration like that painting by Claude Lazar brings me.
- Joe Camoosa

Art is showing - in a new and creative way - what people already know. The hidden, mysterious undercurrents - that is what I explore in my paintings. I want my paintings to refresh and serve as windows to deeper, inner worlds of contemplation.
- Claude Lazar