Born and raised in Sarasota, Florida, my formative years were steeped in the cheerfully low and tastelessly high of American culture; the
usual Florida kitsch and kin. From retired circus performers and aging
munchkins, to wealthy blue haired dowagers with their dyed-to-match
poodles, I found many characters worthy of note, and saw in circus
magnate John Ringlings’ marvelous collection of theatrical paintings
how art could both amaze and amuse. Declaring myself an artist at age
three, I attended pro-wrestling matches and watched the greyhounds
chase the mechanical rabbit in practice runs at the dog track. I
recited the Brownie Promise at a neighbor’s modest ranch house and was
bused to classes at a special campus set aside for gifted students,
eventually leaving Florida and completing my liberal arts education by
graduating cum laude from Mt. Holyoke College in S. Hadley,
Massachusetts. During the 1980’s I stubbornly produced works in many
different styles and materials despite a couple of moves to the U.K.
and a few years criss-crossing the U.S. in a Datsun.
In 1992 I began painting in earnest in acrylic on canvas. At present
count I have produced well over 300 paintings, mountains of sculptures
in both papier mache and clay, two sci fi novels, and a couple of
wonderful children. My studio and I live on a 5 acre compound of dead
cars, broken appliances, and old trailers in the New Mexico desert.
Artist Statement
My work is narrative in nature, and simply put, contains allegories of
workaday life and global strife. Sure that may sound dire and dismal,
but my objects and images are always flamboyantly colored and packed
with cartoonish humor. My never-ending cast of characters are both
familiar and fantastic, sometimes bordering on the grotesque but
always weirdly funny and beautifully executed.
By giving equal importance to topics domestically mundane and
internationally tragic, I cheerfully explore the blurry space between
the personal and political. The aim of my visual explorations is to
create multiple avenues of questions rather than one dead-end answer.
I aspire to create a sort of visual itch that will linger like a
puzzle left unsolved. Tucked between my rather whimsical creatures I
scoop out brightly colored dollops of intrigue and ambiguity to serve
as an invitation to fill in the narrative blanks and thus allow the
viewer to relate personally to the piece and vice versa.
Opportunity exists in the act of art making to create a pleasurable
anxiety through the narrative presented, but more importantly, in the
manner that the story is told. Composition and color urge me to take
full advantage of their potential through balance, discord and
repetition. In my work, for every action there is a reaction or
rebuke, for every blue there is an orange or green, for every shape
there is it's echo and void. I work on these aesthetic aspects of my
paintings rather intuitively, keeping at it until the canvas feels
like the controlled explosion of design and color that best expresses
the tenor I am aiming for.
