Bio:
I received my B.S. in Art Education from SUNY Buffalo and my M.F.A. in painting from George Washington University, Corcoran School of Art with additional studio course work at Haystack School (Deer Isle, ME) and Vermont Studio School (Johnson, VT). My career has been characterized by work in multiple media, particularly painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking and ceramics. I moved to Lacey, WA some ten years ago after spending much of my career in New Hampshire teaching art at Holderness Preparatory School and Plymouth State University.
Artist Statement:
I blame the fact that I taught art-drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture and ceramics as the reason why I never quite settled on an individual medium for myself; I so thoroughly enjoy working with each medium. Nor is it quite honest to say “working”. In reality I “play” with my art. Carving a linoleum print, throwing a pot, painting a canvas or manipulating found objects are my ultimate sources of fun. Time in a studio is pure joy for me, my meditation, my yoga, my reason to be! The artists whose work I most admire are the abstract expressionists.
However, among ceramicists I particularly enjoy the work of Ron Meyers, Robert Arneson, Viola Frey, Akio Takamori, Tip Toland, Beth Cavener and Janis Mars Wunderlich.
I enjoy throwing a measure of ambiguity into the mix, duplicity in the meaning, something capable of being understood in either of two or more possible senses, a juxtaposition of materials and ideas without connection.
I approach my artwork quite academically: color, form, shape, patterns, texture, line, balance, proportion, function and clarity. In many cases content comes into play much later. Or, perhaps it is present but I am not aware of it. Often, I feel as though I am being moved along by an outside presence or someone within me pointing the way. It is only later that I begin to see the autobiographical content in a piece. It is my hope that my art fosters a curiosity in the viewer that opens doors of discovery for them.
“Culture adores the man who gives in an unexpected
way just what it has been taught to expect”
Clive Bell