The work in my painting studio started in 1987 during my undergraduate studies in architecture at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY. Most would think that a trip to Pearl Paint on Canal Street in Manhattan would be just another test of stamina climbing the old wood stairs and searching for just the right ‘supplies’. Thanks to my friend Peter, an illustration major, I returned to Brooklyn with several tubes of acrylics, palette knives, brushes, and only my passion to interpret what I saw around me in everyday life.
The very first piece I completed, untitled, of the Williamsburg Bank Building in downtown Brooklyn, seen from my dormitory room, consisted of an impressionistic homage to the long lost abstract impressionists (Gorky, Rothko, Pollack, et al) who inspired me at an early age to look at what others were really trying to say. This first piece was on 3” x 5” canvas wrapped, matte board.
I started to work in mixed-media, first using good old Elmer’s as an adhesive for clippings and parts of the NY Times Book Review, and the occasional found object. As I discovered the limitations of a glue I began to explore mediums. During this same time, around 1990, my friend Chris came to my studio to remove all tubes of black paint from the premises, saying “it’s time for you to stop squeezing black from a tube, make it if you want to use it, and start painting larger.”
As my interest in exploring different gel mediums and decoupage mediums continued, the works began to grow in size. And as I broke the limitations of stretchers and began to construct my own, size was really irrelevant in starting new works.
During my years in the mid-west, before returning east, my work began to be influenced by Chief Skyhawk, a Native American friend and mentor, and by my family of friends who lived their lives in simple ways, but always were searching for the answers of life. My work with collage began to be complimented by woodcuts and transfer printing, working with varying sizes or contextual scales. Local papers described my work as “heroic” and “passionate” while highlighting several one-person shows.
Color and texture began to play a more important role in the work in 1997 when I returned east. I had been painting steadily for ten years, having explored different subjects and mediums, and as the works increased in size, so did the vibrancy of color and what I saw around me in daily life. After a well received one-person show in 2002, and more focused research in Universal Design I began to feel the need to make the paintings three-dimensional and to focus more on material and tactility in the work. In other words paintings that were made to touch.
Throughout the last 23 years, my work has always sought to reconcile the duality of life and death and to examine a more meaningful dialogue with what is seen and experienced in everyday life. Context is the most vital component in my work and allows me to gain understanding of myself, those around me, and the collective experience we all draw from in everyday life.