I paint, and write, in the high desert of New Mexico. The sunlight and mountain air that inspired artists, such as Georgia O'Keefe and Richard Diebenkorn, drew me away from the realm of advertising and New York City.
My work explores the need to satisfy the conceptual aesthetic underpinnings of what makes a painting cohere, without the use of mark-making to mimic representational objects. Composition grows out of contrasts: size, shape, edge, value, hue, intensity.
Process is the beginning and the end for the work. Process involves mark-making with whatever tool might create the desired result: brayers, windshield wiper blades, clay working scrapers, painting knives, and occasionally, brushes.
Materials are kept to a minimum: panels or canvases, oil paint and a putty mixture of powdered marble and safflower oil.
The impetus is music. I paint to and from the rhythms, melodies and harmonies/dissonances. The goal is to create a visual experience to satisfy aesthetics and engage the eye.
When starting a painting, I ask myself the same question Charlene von Heyl does: "My question is always, 'How do I build a painting I haven't ever made before?' "