My artistic practice is all about consistency. It is an everyday approach in my studio that  as an abstract painter involves creative challenges and hopefully solutions to the endeavors of making art.

My paintings are a combination of mixed media works that involve encaustic, oil, enamel, acrylic and collage, emphasizing color, form, texture and surface treatments.

I approach each new painting with the same consistency that I’ve employed for many years now which I refer to as “Pattern, Rhythm and Process.” I typically start each painting by building up layers of paper and / or fabric collage materials by cutting and mounting these pieces onto the canvas or board and arranging them in a way to form the underlying pattern of the painting. This helps lay the foundation for the initial imagery and paves the way for the applications of the other mediums.

The next phase of the work is the part I refer to as rhythm. This starts the mark making portion of the piece as I begin incorporating expressionistic brushwork to create different lines, forms and shapes that get worked and reworked in order to strike the right pictorial balance and to create a sense of “surface tension” that is very important to me. There is a lot of back and forth, pushing and pulling, adding and subtracting of the different paint applications all of which are competing for attention.

In the final process portion of the work, I begin applying layers of the wax-based medium of encaustic. This involves fusing, burning, melting and re-applying this ancient medium in order to achieve surface treatments that can be extremely thick and physical or as smooth as glass. 

I tend to create bodies of work by doing a series of paintings with the same concept running through each piece. Though consistent in my approach, this allows me to explore different avenues for the work and to come to different forks in the road as the piece is developing. This inevitably happens by choice, chance and circumstance. The unpredictability and potential sense of discovery is very exciting and one of the main reasons why I do what I do. My ultimate goal is to create a compelling work of abstract art that engages the viewer and helps fosters a meaningful artistic dialogue.  

Throughout history, no artistic subject has been expressed more often than the human figure. In action or repose, from battle scenes to portraits, artists and viewers alike have been fascinated by it. As a sculptor, the two biggest influences on my work have been High Renaissance Figurative Art and comic books.

By definition, sculpture is 3-dimensional and traditionally finished in some hard substance such as stone or wood or metal. Modern sculptures incorporate any and all substances from bones to space-age polymers.

I’ve always made art with whatever material was available. If there was paint, I painted. If there was a pencil, I drew. On the beach, I made sand sculptures. One day I found a spool of wire in my tool drawer, the kind that’s used to hang picture frames. I made two small climbing figures. I called them “wire hangers” and gave them to my cousin for her birthday. Everyone really seemed to like them and I enjoyed making them so whenever a celebration required a gift, I got out my pliers.

I use only a pair of wire cutting pliers and my bare hands to form the pieces, occasionally working from sketches but usually just free sculpting a gesture before building out the muscle masses.

The action of climbing provides an opportunity to look at the figure suspended in space, to be able to see from angles less seen in most traditional sculpture. Also, like a glass half-full or half-empty, I find a subtle test of the optimism of the viewer in the ascending or descending interpretation.

What I like about wire as a medium is that it’s an industrial material whose basic qualities remain the same, the same metal, the same thickness , even after its been sculpted. Cast iron is no longer iron ore. A carved tree is still wood but no longer a tree. A marble statue is not a rock but every part of a wire sculpture is still wire.

The threadpaintings depict the places where I find natural beauty. Each piece begins with a journey.  I spend hours walking through parks, fields, and woods, photographing and sketching the scenes I discover. Using the photographs, sketches, and my memories of these scenes, I create landscapes out of thread and fabric.

Like growth in nature itself, my work takes significant time, energy, and labor to create. Usually I produce only a few paintings per month.  The process begins with dyeing cotton twill fabric for sky and land, followed by many hours of sewing straight and zigzag stitches using a sewing machine.  Threads are changed frequently to add color and tone to the image.  To contrast the threadwork, loose wool, dyed ribbon, and other fibers are incorporated.  French knots and straight stitches are hand embroidered to add more detail.  I enjoy the slow, repetitive stitching in my work. The process creates a sense of calm analogous to the quietness and beauty I experience within these places.