Parrots, Mostly Spent Painting

I was born in Newport News, Virginia, USA, and live and work in Deep River, Connecticut, I am a studio artist whose practice is focused on abstract work (expressive and geometric) in acrylic, oil, encaustic and gouache as well as realistic oil and acrylic paintings (still life and landscape). I paint on linen, aluminum, MDF and cradled basswood panels, usually, but not always, in a square format. I have been most influenced by the work of Richard Diebenkorn, Helen Frankenthaler, Joan Mitchell, and among contemporary painters, Emily Mason, Brian Rutenberg and Frank Bowling. Interpreting ideas abstractly excites my imagination, and my own excitement leads me to reason that what I paint might be of value to others. When I'm painting, I alter my gestures, colors, lines, overall composition, my rhythm, and my materials, in service of an aesthetic that's been evolving over a lifetime of visual experience. I have great admiration for the Flemish and Dutch painters of the 17th century and several contemporary artists who follow in those august footsteps, such as Hank Helmantel and Lorena Kloosterboer. "What constitutes integrity in a work of art?" is one question that guides my inquiry, as does my deepest-felt objective: to create works that are interesting and beautiful in equal measure. As I complete a work I continually stop and ask myself, is this truly interesting? is it beautiful? I'll leave the final assessment to others, since I don't think the answer is something I can know, but I do keep these questions uppermost in mind as a means of coaxing my work forward. I put my formal education to use (B.A. Goddard College, M.A. & Ph.D., Brandeis University) by teaching for several years as a Professor of Literature at Eastern Connecticut State University and in the MFA program at the University of Southern Maine. After a long career writing, teaching and publishing poetry, I work now as a full-time studio artist in a small New England village on the Connecticut River. On numerous occasions, I've exhibited my work in juried and in open group exhibits, and I've had three solo exhibits, two of those curated. My work has been shown throughout New England and in New York, and some of my paintings have been published along with my poems. During the period 2012 through 2016, my work has been featured as cover art on more than a dozen books and journals.