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working philosophy

As a painter, photographer and designer, I am part observer, propagandist, commentator, journalist, historian, poet, philosopher, explorer and comedian. As such I am compelled to look beyond appearance.

Howard Hodgkin, the great British painter, said of his work "I paint representational pictures of emotional situations." So do I.

To me abstraction is the most realistic form of painting, It is much like instrumental music which is often the most direct and passionate.

Although my painting is non-representational my sensibility is that of a landscapist. My use of texture, color and shape is influenced by the American southwest and the images revealed by modern astronomy.

Photography compliments my painting and furthers my practice of observation. I use the camera much as Bresson did--as a kind of sketchbook and as a tool of expression. I photograph with the eyes of a painter and the mind of a hunter. As Susan Sontag wrote, "The painter constructs, the photographer discloses." To me painting and photography are two sides of the same coin.

photography: areas of emphasis

botanical, wildflowers and flowering plants of the midwestern/eastern United States; landscape & travel, various regions of the U.S., including many National Park systems; irony, images that encapsulate a point-of-view or make a comment, surfaces, images that reveal the passage of time and tell a story; architecture, vernacular and informed; abstracts, natural and human made

photography credits

Audubon books
Backpacker magazine
BrownTrout Publishing, San Francisco, CA
eNature.com
Family Circle magazine
Garden Design magazine
Michigan State University Press
Michigan State University Television (WKAR)
Sierra Club books
State Bar of Michigan
Time-Life books
Visions of Santa Fe, Square Books Publishing