Artist Highlight

I work on birch panels, they remind me of a stage, which is where I started my first career as an actor. After prepping the front and back of a framed birch panel, I have a semi-circle of gallon paints opened at the ready.

Kitchen tools, foam, rags, boards and anything from Home Depot can make interesting painting mates, although primarily, I use a spackle knife.

Dragging, spraying, dripping, smearing and scraping are all part of the process. Varying amounts of pressure applied with my spackle knife enables me to create some control over the haphazard nature of my approach.

I lay down up to 15 layers of paint and frequently finish the piece with a resin topcoat. Alternating this application with paint, resin, paint, resin numerous times renders a startling effect in which the paint layers appear to “float” above the other layers. This causes light to be trapped between the layers, giving a wonderful sense of inner illumination.

I often incorporate heavy texture, color fields, realism, words and iridescent mica flecked paints into my work. One color, shape or tone tells me what is needed next. The process becomes mostly unconscious and as the process flies along I hold on and sometimes I lead.

The end result is a vibrant, colorful painting. I’m drawn to the genre because viewing this work allows people to express themselves in very personal and often revealing ways. It helps open us up to each other.