artist's statement

Each painting begins with a decisive mark. I have always marveled at the making of a mark. Suddenly something which did not exist before has come into being. I respond to the initial mark with another mark until I have in some way, either through a mark or the space between marks, considered the entire surface of the painting.

I respond to the sensorial impact of the first mark and of the interplay of subsequent marks to each other and to the ground of the painting. The comings and goings of marks on or just below the surface of the painting build up into layers or veils. In this shallow space a structure emerges. The marks may be zany, silly, or tragic-comic; they may confuse the eye, but they also are the means by which pictorial unity is achieved.

I am very open and receptive to what emerges no matter how wacky or strange. Improvisation is central to my process and always involves a sensorial response to the given mark or the absence of a mark. Some marks are painted over, new marks are made. It is a process of give and take, addition and subtraction, positive and negative. I continue until I can sense a palpable dynamic, with a rhythm that is both visual and visceral.

These paintings are done in egg tempera on wood panels. As an artist I see myself extending the tradition of painting, using one of the most ancient of means. Tradition in painting is, for me, a living reality. When I encounter a work of art, no matter how old, it is always a present tense event.

As a medium egg tempera is cool, flat, and dries quickly. This is as literal as I get to the landscape: the materials of egg tempera are so literally drawn from the landscape: the green earth pigments, the red earth pigments. I usually paint in series, inspired, in part, by the colors themselves. By working in series, I can gage the process of individual paintings against others in the series. When I see each individual painting in relation to others in the series, I make a decision to keep working on the painting or to declare it complete. So the series has a life of its own, a dynamic. However, they all have to be able to stand on their own as individual works of art.

October 2008