I was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1950. My father was in the Navy — stationed in San Diego — and my early years involved a lot of travel between, and life in, California and Pennsylvania. One result of all that back and forth is that my childhood memories are made up of ocean beaches and coal smoke, cactus gardens and autumn leaves, riding bikes on blazing hot asphalt and playing in the snow until I started turning blue. Revolving road trips, motel rooms, apartments, schools, teachers, friends and enemies. A pattern of contrasts and impermanence that has continued to inform and influence my life and art.
I also attended two different high schools. My scholastic and artistic future was determined when I discovered that the second offered a major in art — something I was already doing, without credit. I received a scholarship to Columbus College of Art and Design, in Columbus, Ohio, and graduated with a BFA in 1975. I later attended Edinboro University in Edinboro, Pennsylvania, as their first MFA candidate in painting, graduating in 1980. I've since lived and worked in Chicago, Kansas City, Austin, Columbus, San Francisco and, currently, Napa, CA.
For some time now I've been focused on combining opposing elements in my paintings: abstract/representational, formal/conceptual, cool/hot, whatever I can conceive to juxtapose. (This current series has been stripped down to a few basic components: various vertical paint applications — lines, scrapes, brush strokes, stains, stripes and rendered "bars" — overlaying fields of expressive color and gestural forms.) The stylistic results come from the choices made and manner of application, and vary accordingly. The paintings can appear to be formal, expressive, surrealistic, whatever, and I like that. But the style is not the point, so much; it's the process and the tension created by these elements in opposition that interests me. The meaning is in the method.
Selected Exhibits:
- Paint and Content, four-person group show, Post Gallery, Kansas City, MO, 1995
- Red, group show, Contemporary Art Workshop, Chicago, IL, 1985
- Drawing, Moming Dance and Art Center, Chicago, IL, 1985, juried
- Five Abstract Artists, group show, Contemporary Art Workshop, Chicago, IL, 1985
- One Person Show, UP Gallery, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, 1983
- Group Show, Contemporary Art Workshop, Chicago, IL, 1983
- Painting as Image in America, Regional Invitational Painting Exhibit, Indiana University, Indiana, PA, 1983
- Wall Works, four-person invitational, Edinboro State University, Edinboro, PA, 1981
Collections:
- The McDermott Foundation, Chicago, IL
- CCS Video, Chicago, IL
- Continental Bank, Chicago, IL
- Erie Art Museum, Erie, PA
- Erie Insurance Exchange, Erie, PA
