Artist Statement
My work as a painter is unavoidably linked to cultural and environmental experiences. I have spent over nine years of my adult life working, living and traveling outside of the United States with extensive time in Mexico, Asia, Southeast Asia, North Africa and Europe. Specifically, I have responded to traditional crafts, structures, utilitarian devices and objects of ritual. I attempt to create formal and technical situations that are, in turn, objects as well as fields of illusion.

Presently, my influences have been derived from travel and study in Vietnam and Cambodia. The purpose of this opportunity was to research traditional fabric coloring techniques that relate, in part, to the grounds or rear spaces of my paintings. Furthermore, I was intent on documenting my observations of shape, color and atmosphere in drawing journal form. The resulting work on canvas, rag paper and wood has been formalized in my Philadelphia studio.

The synthesis of my journal information incorporates reductive and geometric approaches to shape (configuration, size, repetition and juxtaposition). Formal and aesthetic issues pertaining to color, atmosphere and visual depth are connected to ambient experiences.