Artist’s Statement

My painting contains duality: clarity and ambiguity; sanctuary and threat; pleasure and pain. The use of vibrant, saturated colors--beautiful, but confrontational in their intensity--contributes to the tension between these extremes. The large scale of the watercolor and acrylic pieces is also confrontational. The resulting images are seductive, powerful, and strangely disquieting. I graduated in 1982 from Washington University, St. Louis, MO, with a M.F.A. and since that time have taught at universities and in private seminars, nationally as well as internationally. My influences, early in my career, included David Hockney and Eric Fischl, and as I have matured in my art, I find I am more and more influenced by Joseph Raffael. It also must be said that water and a watery environment have been greatly influential on my lifes work. Coincidentally, for the first 10 years of my life as an artist, I worked exclusively in watercolor. Today, I work in both watercolor and acrylic. My goal is to create work that has an intimacy, mysteriousness and sensuality. At its best, my work also has an edge; something in it that takes a moment, a second look, an effort to comprehend.