My approach to art making is strongly influenced by the New York School of painting and French Modernism emphasizing the use of strong shapes and structural color.  I delight in the experience of painting and drawing from direct observation.  A single place can function as a well spring for ideas in a variety of media.   The tangle of over-grown plants set off by dark wood paneling in a studio kitchen inspired many of the works in my 2020 exhibition “The Spaces Between.”

Excitement in a subject is never about any one part but how these parts function as a whole – a visual symphony.  Like actors, objects or elements in the landscape, take on different roles depending on the context.  Simple or complex, found or designed, the focus is on playing one form off another in a visual, rhythmic dance. 

My wood sculptures develop along-side the paintings and drawings, though the source and pace can vary greatly. Extraneous marks and colors in found materials often become integral to the finished pieces. But I also demand that the imagery convey spatial depth while inviting a certain degree of ambiguity.

Some sculptures are geometric distillations of still life subjects; in others the ideas come to me in unexpected ways. Through the car window or on daily walks I notice machinery, architecture and forms in nature. These casual observations inform decisions made in the studio.  Alaska Native art has influenced my aesthetic sense in three dimensions as well.  I like the physical activity of carving and of designing with wood.  It is an enjoyable contrast and complement to painting and printmaking.  One medium feeds the other.