Artist Highlight

The creative process for me is varied and yet finite. I have my boards, my paint and my solitude which stimulates me. Painting is a private, intimate and passionate obsession. I feel blessed to have this time to create a piece of art that someone else can enjoy. The mind is not always at peace and the body is not always at rest and yet when I am painting the soul wills itself to transcend. To put shape and form to sunshine, flowers and trees with liquid color and bristle. What a magnificent release from the tides of time where the mind reassigns thoughts and creativity emerges.

Everything that is gathered from years of effort and result, some good and some not so good, is crucial to the process of creation. The rhythm of rising and falling are essential to the flow of my art. How will this piece look, the next...; a question always asked and usually answered. I am not the one to judge, though, the universe will. Why do I paint? This question can only be answered with 'I just know that I have to'.

We all have our work and we all have our play. My inner strength and vision comes from having both simultaneously.

I graduated with a B.F.A. in Painting & Printmaking in 1982 at Virginia Commonwealth University. Since graduating I have worked exclusively as a fine artist, developing a market for my work throughout the United States and abroad. I had become something of a pioneer in contemporary serigraphy and, after more than 15 years of hand-printing, I turned my attention to painting. After exploring silk screen ink as a paint medium, I began to include acrylic, ink washes, oils, pastels and pencils to my repertory. My passion for my craft helps me to stay creative, enthusiastic and energized so that I can hopefully be responsive to new ideas and challenges.

Technically, I was trained both as a painter and a printer, and as such, I've sought to combine the influences of each. When the properties of a painting and graphic are combined, there is an instantaneous and striking contrast. Simplified lines and planes are combined with dramatic gesture of color and free form to give each piece its special visual power. I rely on my imagination for the most part. I may use a reference such as wildflowers, but my work becomes personal interpretations of these images, not scientifically accurate copies. If I can capture the feeling that transcends from an image, the feeling will ultimately last longer than the image itself.