I have lived most of my life in Northeastern Ohio, near Lake Erie and the beautiful Cleveland Metroparks which inspire me daily. I have some formal art training from Kent State University, Cuyahoga Community College and BAYarts. I have flirted with painting, drawing, mosaics, collage and assemblage and have concluded that painting keeps me sane. I work primarily in acrylics on canvas and my process is constantly evolving because I am always learning more about the medium, and more importantly, myself.
Statement
“As my artist statement explains, my work is incomprehensible and therefore filled with deep significance” – Calvin & Hobbes
I wish I had written that. Can you tell I hate stuffy artist statements? Here's what I can tell you and what I believe.
Any vision or talent that I have is a gift from God, meant to be shared. My art is primarily influenced by the colors and textures of the natural environment, and I'm blessed to live minutes away from Lake Erie and the Cleveland Metroparks system. I draw much of my inspiration there. Everywhere I catch glimpses of God's handiwork and it stuns me with its loveliness. God is the ultimate artist, the ultimate creator, and I am humbled to be able to reshape elements of God's world into images that are new. An alternate reading of “to glorify God” is “to display God's beauty”. It is my desire to display that beauty, however imperfectly, through my life and my art.
Presently I work primarily in acrylics. I'm captivated by color, and at what paint does. I use a variety of techniques, some of which I control, and some allow the paint to do what it's going to do without much intervention. I then build on what time and chance have provided. I hope that my art makes you happy, curious, perhaps makes you laugh, and is both mysterious and available at the same time. If it makes you breathe a little easier, question your assumptions or dream of a better time and place then I’ve done my job.