About Me:

Welcome to my website. I'm an artist living in Portland, Oregon. My life as a painter and artist includes the period often seen as the final days of Modernism and the sometimes confusing transition into Post-modernism. Although I've worked extensively in printmaking, I still think of myself more as a painter .

For now I will begin with some of my recent paintings and in the near future add some images of prints. Eventually, I may include some earlier paintings that are much larger in size as I learn more about developing this site.

I was drawn to the abstraction of things early on, following an experience that led to my becoming a painter. Soon after, I adjusted to non-objective abstraction eliminating any material subject matter. At the time, like any young painter, there was a lot of experimentation and trial-and-error in searching for an insight that would give me direction. I looked to Paul Klee's theoretical writings; what he called a "natural philosophy of form" and began working with the concept of "Cosmos and Chaos" in reference to "duality" and the "natural" balance of opposites. Soon after I realized that something about this approach didn't feel complete. It mostly had to do with the idea that abstraction in Modernism is sometimes understood as being utopian, idealistic, and/or universal - definitely not what I had in mind. Looking back, the many starts and stops were caused by my confusing this idea of duality with Reality and that Reality was actually the central issue in my search and experimentations.

In spite of this, I did learn how to use improvisation along with simultaneous-receptivity and most importantly to begin trusting my intuitions. Eventually I surmised that Chaos, i.e., happenstance, random or chance events, etc., the antithesis of Order, was in concert with some type of system or structure in the way that DNA as a structure, plays a vital role in our genetic makeup or how gravity affects the workings of the cosmos. This is not Order as we usually think of it but something that complements Chaos; that provides a flexible equilibrium with it. I found the concept of Structure more appropriate to that end.

Late one night, I discovered an "un-intended" Golden Rectangle shape (also known as Phi) in the painting I was working on. It was formed completely by improvisation and chance and when measured, it was amazingly accurate in its ratio of 1:1.618. At the time I knew very little about Phi, however, this event became a very important personal discovery, setting off more research and more experimentation. I soon realized that Phi was key to the concept of Structure I was looking for, one that could provide equilibrium with Chaos.

This is how my discovery of Phi also marked the beginning of using the concept of Structure and Chaos. Additionally, I took a renewed interest in Wassily Kandinsky and his theory of abstraction, trying to understand and experience what he called "internal" Reality. My fascination with the Cosmos, both visually and conceptually, also led to other issues addressing Reality including Einstein's Theory of Relativity and Bohr's Theory of Quantum Mechanics. I see these concepts as also being relevant to what I explore in my paintings.

In the late 90’s, I suffered a serious back injury leaving me unable to work on the paintings at the time. Eventually I was able to continue in short bursts between the serious and frequent flair-ups of pain. To stay involved in between these and to keep focused, I began to keep a journal, writing about the different ideas, concepts and theories surrounding what I was doing in paint.  I have edited some of these "writings", which can be found in the Menu under TEXTS. Even though it's a lot of discourse, the visual remains of paramount importance to me, as it should be. I try to make my paintings a visual experience that only requires looking, allowing your own curiosity and imagination to participate without needing to understand the motives that underlie them.

As the artist, I'm striving to experience what's called "absolute equilibrium," even though this may prove to be an impossibility.  By equilibrium, I mean parity between the competing instincts of structure (internally as rational) and chaos (internally as irrational) by means of the Phi ratio (as reality) and non-objective illusion (as realism), an illusionism that is beyond the objective world while at the same time an illumination into that world.

For now I continue to explore the inter-connections of Realism, Abstraction, and Reality while pursuing their unity within the composition of a painting. Perhaps its my age or because I have seen so many different turns and directions in Western art that I have a more sensitive awareness of the role of perception in painting. This vital element has shifted from the sensual-visual to the conceptual and anti-aesthic; weakening its role. To me illusionism and its place in visual perception is as fundamental to painting as imagination is to the function of our minds. Instead of weakening its role in painting we should be exploring these "visual phenomena" to new ends.