As a child I loved creating drawings of the people and places around me. Later my passion for art was ignited by visits to museums and galleries around the world. The works done by artists over the centuries offered the opportunity to see into the lives of others and the varied techniques used by artists intrigued me and had me wanting more.

In my own practice, I’ve found oils and charcoal allow me to draw out the qualities that best shape composition, expression, and likeness. They are fluid and flexible in application and allow me to work reactively as needed. Color, reflected light, and the values that create form are the exciting components of the emerging art work.

I work from life when possible or use my own photographic references when it is not. In that way, I can select my own compositions, values, and lighting. I find myself less interested in “ideal beauty” than in the visual representation of experience and nuance. To me this equates with true beauty.

I believe that artistic expression is a conversation between the artist, the subject of the work, and the viewer. This discourse should move from what is seen to what is felt and back again. Both the artist and the viewer bring their own viewpoint to any work and with it questions about the meaning of the work and the expression portrayed. Through these conversations we discover the depth of our human connectedness and commonalities and hopefully emerge a bit more aware of the beauty that surround us.