The creation of art provides a unity to my life, so unexpected, but joyfully invited in just a few years ago after multiple decades of denial and avoidance.

My first awareness, that there was something out there that called to me, was at 5 or 6 years old. I noticed, hung on my parents’ bedroom wall, a small thing of what I came to know as dunes by the Provincetown artist, John Gregory from 1938-39. From 1955/56 is a long time to have an art call on hold. Throughout my life it has remained strongly imprinted in my memory. It now hangs in my studio.

A few years ago, I came to painting, finding that the clarity and the perfection that I perceived in photography did not answer my need, although I tried mightily. Negating the idea and struggle for perfection in the portrayal of an object or vista was the hinge point upon which my process changed and began to evolve

It became clear to me, working on any piece, that the illusion and what was behind it, was the key, and most importantly, primary to the art itself. I began to focus more on the illusion of things, rather than the perfection of things. As soon as I let go of preconceived and self-mandated ideas and processes, there was a greater flow and ease within the creation. There was comfort in that freedom and an amazing variety of work emerged as I explored and indulged my imagination.

I interpret from memories and photographs, create and paint. The varying traditions incorporated in a lifetime of living in rural and suburban America, to years spent growing up in Mexico and later university studies there along with living and teaching abroad, have had a profound continual influence on me. 

Presently and into the mix, Cape Cod, especially bay, beach, marsh, and woods, serves to inspire and to draw me to further exploration of themes of an open natural world.

Current social and world issues also influence my art, providing a purpose in those created pieces to awaken awareness and to provoke thoughtful responses within viewers.

I work with charcoal, and acrylics on canvas and paper. However, whatever comes to hand or mind is fair game to be used in my work, including beach leavings, sand, glass, cardboard, gauze, netting, plastic wrap, drywall tape, shells, rope, fabric, mirrors, ac tape, screening, ink, etc.

“Listening” to the work is an extremely important creative step for me. It can happen in a flash or take days to coalesce and call for action to direct me in my involvement in the art.

Although I use a variety of palette knives, spreaders, shapers and painter’s brushes, I find that at various points I communicate my ideas better when I can feel and move colors and paint with my hands and fingers. 

Many of my canvases are large to accommodate aging and physical changes; my hands and arms lack a certain amount of control. And, as much as I would like to maintain control of my art, I have found that as I work, there is a giving over of process and control to the piece itself. Patience is required and insisted upon by my art pieces, which, contrary to my nature, is never an easy creative process.