Near the Surface Oil on Canvas     42" X 54"

            I am fascinated by the wealth of possibilities of what painting can be, as well as by what it has been. Artists of the past have established the boundaries, much as early explorers mapped the continents, but we are still finding new ways to make paintings and likewise, we continue to learn about the earth and our place in it. I see painting as the search for meaning – the meaning of the painting and the meaning of life.

            I am interested in a variety of ideas regarding the nature of painting, and I have developed several ways of working to address these ideas by using realism, abstraction, and often a mixture of both. Color and the processes I use to arrive at an image are the common threads that run through my work.

            These recent paintings, begun in November of 2005, were inspired by trips to the Eleuthera in the Bahamas and St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. In these places there exists a delicate ecology between organisms above and below the water’s surface that I find to be beautiful and mysterious.