My work tends to fall into two genres—landscape and still life.

The landscapes, or more accurately, skyscapes, are informed by my memories of upstate New York. Within these works, I’ve incorporated both direct observation and interpretive elements, which deal with the intangibilities associated with perception. What is it that’s retained by our selective memories? How does the temperament of a landscape or an object become so entrenched in our minds that we seem to understand its very essence in some elemental center of our being? The interaction of three influences—intuition, experience, and memory—helps to position our perceived reality within a structure greater than ourselves. During the process of painting, these influences coalesce and gradually emerge, principally in the quality of light found within the painting’s space. That light, in turn, elicits an emotional response from the viewer. The images question the notion of an archetypal landscape while implicitly acknowledging the presence of the Divine.

The silverpoint still-life drawings project a concern for order and quietude. The object’s placement emphasizes a sense of dignity and monumental existence in a suspended time—a time transcending the particularity of object or place. Ultimately, the relationships between the content and the formal elements reconstruct a diffuse tranquility of a vision lost, hence establishing a sense of solace and a spirit of healing so needed in the disquieting times in which we live.

Towards Ontario, sky & moon, 2008, encaustic on panel, 7 7/8 X 15 inches