Artist Statement

I paint the experience of living in a land I love which is centered down the spine of the Rockies from the ferny woods to high western desert; the eastern foothills into the prairie. Hiking in the clouds in Glacier and Rocky Mountain Park, I've dipped my bucket into mountain steams and painted the wildflowers du jour being watched only by mountain goats. I have rested in the shade of canyons or arches using dry pastels to capture the color impressions and record the story told by strangely eroded shapes. I also paint my interactions with inhabitants that I have had the pleasure to meet and the landscape which provides them a home.

I am working in watermedia for it's versatility of texture and ability for layering. I choose the particular form of this media needed to help me represent my response to the subject's essence on the day of my encounter. This can range from transparent watercolor on slick paper to work on raw wood with heavy acrylic gels embedded with sand, glass beads or mica. There are times that my painting is a dance applying paint with one hand and modifying with the other through gouges, scrapes or buffing until the surface is in harmony with the mood of the subject.

I was born to communicate through color, tone and texture my experience with this gift of life by using the gift of art. I paint abstractly, developing the painting as needed to express awe at the intricasies interwoven throughout the dynamics of nature. I am aware of my participation in this dance of life and am grateful for the time to use these gifts which I wish to share in the hope that my work awakens a desire to pause, to look a little closer and feel a little deeper that amazing, pulsating, connecting thread that joins us all.

(Complete Resume available on request)