Artist Statement
“My philosophy is a very simple one: I believe in creativity, imagination, and self-expression. I am a painter. I believe art can have something important to say about the human condition. At its best, and in any era, great painting is exciting. It can take us somewhere we remember or haven’t been before, provoking us into new areas of thought and feeling. I wish to ignite a sense of joy. I create paintings that reflect the people and moments that touch my life. I allow imagination and emotion to commingle into memorable creations. My works are a collection of memories, philosophies, and experiences. I hope to enliven a sense of connection and optimism and strive to create beauty and a moment’s pleasure.
Art leads to compassion and sensitivity and the world needs that."
Thoughts about my Art
"We push and pull apart the world, and then layer it with emotions in order to put it back together as something different, beautiful and preferably better.
I primarily choose to create abstract non-objective paintings because I find the creative process honest and satisfying. A single mark or line on a blank surface provides a starting point for an intuitive exploration of the visual language found in abstraction.
Working in mixed media: graphite, oil, acrylic and collage, allows me to layer and rework textured surfaces - with each painting resulting in a delightful discovery of things explored in the heart, perhaps unseen, but now visited for a while.” -
My artistic work for the past 20 years has focused on painting and photography. I believe the arts have a profound impact on our contemporary culture today. In my varied and diverse approaches to making art; installations; public, gallery exhibits and web projects I strive to relate to the viewer and elicit a response. My work deals with the themes of emotion. The purpose of my works of art or photography is to communicate ideas, to create a sense of beauty; to generate strong emotions or involvement in an idea or cause.
"My work is an attempt to channel and express my thoughts often revealing my inner emotions. My paintings are personal. Conscious thinking is eliminated, and I get lost or perhaps found in the pure enjoyment of creating. I paint what I have seen and what moves me. I create to provoke emotion, thinking, and discourse.
My current work is now influenced by the events in nature that are changing our world. Climate Change. Wildfires are changing our forests and fauna. I have for years painted a series of abstract landscapes -Secret Forest's and now wish to draw the viewer's attention to the importance of our national parks and beautiful forests that are being changed by fire and development.
My work ranges from abstract expressions to figurative and takes on various forms intended to draw in the viewer as co-author and witness. I wish to create new and unpredictable cycles of thoughts and associations, providing an experimental chance to challenge one’s perceptions, perspectives, and assumptions.
EMOTION Creating art is more about communicating what I’m feeling than what I’m seeing. Feeling is something more; it’s feeling your existence. It’s a still place. It’s like one word, one image - “ joy." It is a “moment’s pleasure.” I want my work to exude joy, celebration, measured clarity and a sense of self. The impetus for my work comes from the outdoors. I love forests and walking by the ocean. I have spent many wonderful days walking my dogs and gathering inspirations that will last a lifetime. I am continually enamored by the Abstract Expressionist painters and I like that association to my work. It’s not that I am painting a ‘landscape, it’s the essence of the forest I want to create. I like creating the illusion of a space one could crawl into. I spend a lot of time finding the right combinations of color and light.
PROCESS My creative process emphasizes surface, light, and dark. I strive for balance and serenity in the arrangement of color and form. My work is driven by the desire to display atmosphere and emotion of a place and time. I explore color relationships in my work and use diverse materials ranging from oil, acrylic, oil crayon, construction materials and fabric applied to canvas, linen, boards, and paper. I paint with brushes, palette knives and my hands and fingers.
STUDIO In the studio, my work practice is energetic and spontaneous. I paint both in my studio and plein air and often use my photography as a reference. I begin with an underpainting and then add marks, lines and multiple layers. I work directly into the surface with confidence and endeavor to be innovative. I represent myself as an alchemist of images and a catalyst for daydreams and desires. In both my art and photography I keep my eye trained on the lines of the face and nature, allowing for the formation of personal marks and lines within the paintings.
