Artist statement

Images are derived from an active observation of local landscape and my inner life. Imagine a universe expressed in landscape and poetry—discover color, gesture, and text.

My hand, usually my dominant right hand, but not always, is the primary tool used. It is the most direct, sensitive, energetic and forceful tool I have for expression.  In my hand, I sometimes use graphite, oil sticks, pastels, charcoal, ink, erasures, solvents, rags, gesso.  I also experiment using sticks, brooms, brushes, leaves, corks, string, pencils. Whatever is at hand goes in my hand. My process includes scratching, rubbing, smearing, erasing, cutting, layering, gluing, assembling as well as experimenting with different kinds of paper or substrate along the way. 

I am interested primarily in monoprinting which I first did on a homemade tortilla press in 1976. Since then, I have used a variety of presses. I play with image making on both zinc and plexiglass plates.  Using primarily oil-based inks, I experiment with brayers, brushes, stencils, and other materials at hand to create texture and image.  Each print is one of a kind.

Using Acrylic paints and a variety of mediums, I paint on canvas, wood panels and paper.  Sometimes, the brush is my ally, and other times I prefer palette knives, spatulas, and other tools for moving paint around.  My paintings and drawings are inspired mostly from landscapes I have either walked in, or explored through my inner-life.

Let’s just say poetry is the foundation where everything begins.  Where I seek to understand what I see or feel.  Poetry is a primary language for me.  And the dance between my visual art expression and my writing is a daily practice, and a joy.