Photo Albums

To view my work of the past 40 years it is hard to believe that at one time I was a strict realist painter. Returning to college in the fall of 1968 after what I experienced since April that year I felt I had much more to say in my painting than I had the previous year. I had protested the war since my senior year in high school and it was just a matter of time that it entered my paintings.

Because of the events of the time my painting style turned to social realism. This was painted that September, six months after Dr. King's assassination. During those months I felt his dream was crumbling.

In January 1969 I took my first modern art history class and the day the class was introduced to Kasimir Malevich's "Black Suprematist Square", 1914-1915, my paintings were forever changed. At this stage of my art education this was the first painting I had encountered that seemed to reference nothing but itself. It is not a painting of an object or objects, but rather, it is an object. It demands an active response from the viewer's imagination rather than the passive response of recognizing an object.

It was through non-objective abstraction that I was able to find my own voice. It is through non-objective abstraction that I am able to make visible the concepts and issues that are most authentic in my life. Objects are objects, one can paint them as they are, howere, I was, and still am much more interested in issues concerning the dynamic relationships between objects and to visualize this in my paintings I required a non-objective, abstract visual language.

What connects me to nature is its cycles, its power, and all the forces that provide birth, growth, and death. To visualize the mysteries of one's place in nature and our deeper spiritual responses to such forces is what I am concerned with beginning with my Terra Series from 1972-1973.

This same theme continued with my Amplexo series from 1974 to 1980.

Environments designed by western civilization to allow the faithful to engage their spiritual self always fascinated me. My reflection on such environments led me to a new series of paintings dealing with the rituals that, in the words of mythologist Joseph Campbell, allow us to "pitch us out of ourselves to connect with a higher consciousness."

The memory of glass and marble mosaics, stained glass, and decorative textiles all contributed to the Litany series of 1980-82.

From 1982 to 1988 I experimented with several themes and approaches to painting including an exploration of neo-expressionist figurative works dedicated to the victims of this world. The series was a brief one, but the expressive brushwork I developed for these paintings was an important development for series to come.

While researching the patterns on Native American pottery I began to notice the beautiful abstract compositions that could be found when isolating small sections of these patterns on the pots. The small isolated sections became the basis for compositions on top of which I would then improvise with gesture and color.

From 1990 to the present I have viewed my own painting as a visualization of my spiritual self, seeking harmony and balance in a difficult world. The opposing visual elements are symbolic representations of the contrasting forces we face in life.

The search for a spiritual harmony and balance through the act of painting continues in my work to this day and I expect it forever will. My fascination with the spiritual aspect of being human and how the many peoples of this world maintain that spiritual self in their lives is at the heart of my paintings.