Artist Statement

At some point you may have heard this or something similar said: the definition of
insanity is attempting to achieve new results while doing the same old thing. Well,
over the past few years in some ways I’ve felt that my work has at times reflected
that adage. Not that I’ve been doing “bad” art (whatever that is; in this day and age
every conceivable thought/image/performance/object can be presented as art), but
there was a growing feeling—in the midst of great personal change—that I needed
to try new things, or at least to do familiar things in new ways. Not an easy thing
to admit to oneself! The resulting output is visible in the art that you see online here
today. It begins to answer my own personal/artist-centered question: “what next?”

To me, that question should always be in every artist's repertoiré.

One way to reinvent my art was to make it smaller. For virtually all of my 17-
year career I’ve been creating large canvases, sometimes up to five feet in width. I
decided that I could test myself—by going to the other extreme. I found it a worthy
challenge: attempting to achieve the same presence and realism in a small work as
in one of greater proportions. The experiment continues; a number of the pieces in

my galleries are 11 x 14 or even smaller.

Another recent exploration was borne of my appreciation for film noir, a 1940’s-50s

era genre of cinematography that typically employed intense, high contrast, dramatic

lighting effects. In many ways it was a logical extension of my style, since trying to

create drama in everyday scenes through strong light shifts has fascinated me from

the start. The big question revolved around showing this in the context of value alone,

without the power and emotion of color to help describe the pictures. The two remaining—

two others have sold—black and white (and blue) paintings you see in the Interiors & Figures

Gallery are my answer.

I trust that you’ll let me know what you think; my Guestbook provides you with that
opportunity. Since art without a viewer is like someone talking to him or herself,
your comments are both welcome and desired. Perhaps you’ll have something new
to say yourself…