Biography

I am an abstract painter who was born and educated in Pittsburgh, PA. Studying and making art since childhood, I majored in painting and sculpture at Carnegie-Mellon University, graduated in 1971 and have been a working artist, living in the San Francisco Bay Area ever since.

My love of abstract painting and my passion for color have always been my central focus. For years I created abstract work, interested primarily in creating rich, evocative, color-saturated, surfaces.

A few years ago, however, my work began to shift, sometimes so quickly that it’s been a bit hard for me to keep up with. I began a series I referred to as “White Out” with thickly applied large swaths of primarily white paint. What was I “whiting out? Was I covering up or starting new? Hiding, or wanting to open, find and reveal? Somehow it literally “cleansed my palette.” Color began to creep back in, sometimes more muted and subtle, sometimes as bold as ever, but texture and form were my primary concerns as the paintings get thicker and thicker.

The recent past has been a time for me of having to deal with illness, death, loss, hope and survival. Is it any wonder that my work has gotten darker, hopefully richer, and more (literally--with silver paint) reflective? When I look down at my paint-covered hands and see the texture there, the lines of experience that are a map of my life, I know that it is texture that gives life--and art--richness and meaning.

Portfolio: