Artist

My life as an artist evolved from time spent in close contact with nature. During my time in New England, my focus was on exploring the landscape using transparent watercolor. My interest in this medium has never wavered because of its intrinsic elements of luminosity and surprise.  
 
Living in north Florida since 1988, I have found a vastly different natural world. This haunting place brought new ideas and emboldened my approach to painting. Intense Florida sunlight expanded my use of color.
 
I hold a continuing love for and fascination with nature, especially its fragility and vulnerability to human folly. Curiosity about people and our perplexing relationship with the world we inhabit stirs a desire to explore our common condition in my art.
 
Increasingly I have been drawn to the human form, the way it moves, the shapes it affords, the hue and texture of flesh. In my painting I am currently exploring our human propensity to self-delusion and its consequences. A sense of humor about it all is vital to staying reasonably sane, and I try to keep this attitude in my work. 
 
In the Swimmers series of oil paintings I have chosen non-idealized nude figures. They are seen from an acute vantage point. The foreshortening is exaggerated. Gender remains ambiguous. They do not touch each other. Some are cropped at mid-body and seem to rise out of view. They are thus depersonalized. Floating in a watery or snowy milieu, they seem peaceful, perhaps even happy in their detachment, but at what cost? The nudity in the paintings is meant to underscore our collective vulnerability.
 
In the Heat Wave series of oil paintings, non-idealized nude figures recline on the beach, in physical contact with each other but oblivious to it. They are lost in reverie. Exquisitely in the moment, they do not reflect on their place in the world or the state of the world. A purple cloud hovers. In this state of paradoxical obsessions, we remain out of touch with the impact of our choices.
 
In the BodyScapes series of oil pastel drawings I see the curves, creases, mounds and valleys of the human body as landscape that holds the warmth and reflects the colors of sunlight. My intent is to convey an interior pulse that echoes our sometimes forgotten connection to the earth.