I've been a working artist since receiving my BFA at the Univ. of Iowa, Iowa City. In 1978 I moved to far Northern California and worked as a carpenter and commercial fisherman while maintaining a painting studio in an old creamery building in Arcata, CA. In 1981 I was awarded a graduate teaching fellowship at Stanford University in the Department of Fine Arts, where I taught my own classes in drawing to undergraduates. In 1984 I joined the William Sawyer Gallery in San Francisco, where my paintings were shown on a consignment basis. Since that time, I have continued to produce the paintings while being self-employed as a furniture designer and builder.
My work is drawn from a variety of sources, including things that I see in Nature, literature, current events, and even some tongue-in-cheek art historical references. However, 2021 has brought ever more serious, current event themes into the paintings as I inevitably find myself impacted by the events of the day. Even in these more serious paintings there is often an element of humor and playfulness to engage the viewer. In these paintings I try to let the viewer "in on the joke" through oblique references within the title. In the painting above, "The Fauves Gather to Critique A Starry Night", I found myself imagining a gathering of the early 20th century artist group Les Fauves ("The Wild Beasts") gathering to critique Van Gogh's painting "A Starry Night" but finding that there was actually only a REAL starry night available to critique and dissect (which looks remarkably like Van Gogh's painting.) My work often contains what might seem to be disparate elements that have been brought together in a manner similar to a dream. Even though in the dream one might find themself questioning WHY is that person or thing here, there is also an "inflection point" where we find ourselves accepting their presence, and even garnering valuable insight and understanding from the juxtaposition. Ultimately, it is my hope that the paintings initiate a questioning process for the viewer; an inquiry into "what is going on here".... both in the painting and on a macro/societal level. |