""Study in Light and Texture: The Civic Opera House from the Chicago River"" Drawing

TESTIMONIAL - 2008 ARTROPOLIS / ART CHICAGO - The Invitational Exhibition of Emerging Artists

"Wow! This work is absolutely amazing. This is the best artist in the exhibition."
Paul Morris, VP Merchandise Mart Art Events and past owner and founding director, New York Armory Show

For me as a classicist, Chicago’s most beautiful architecture and sculpture was produced before 1932. But many of those important Gothic Revival, Neoclassic, and Art Deco buildings made with facades of Indiana limestone standing in our central business district are being torn down for lack of investment and upkeep or may face demolition in the near future for new construction.

I am interested in displaying the best of Chicago’s urban environment in a fine art manner that will enlighten and educate residents and visitors to what we have as public decorative art, and what we could lose in our continuously changing cityscape through the examination, documentation, and display of Chicago's most beautiful and exceptional buildings and sculpture.

As a seasoned graphic designer, I weave a visual story of classic architecture in graphite that
amplifies and focuses the viewer’s perception of Chicago’s stone, terra cotta, and bronze details
that makes an unforgettable visual impression. I have produced small and oversized drawings in
the most dramatic fashion possible to create a powerful and thought-provoking exhibition of
finely cut edifices, ornament, and sculpture that will heighten our aesthetic sensibilities and
continue the fight for preserving our aging urban infrastructure.

Architecture is the art that defines those sensibilities more than any other form of visual
expression. Natural materials and elements of craftsmanship in ornament bring warmth and value
to America’s big city surroundings. In the last six decades, an intensified interest in the
preservation of our natural environment has evoked a broader understanding of environmental
quality: environment is both natural and man-made.

This expanded concept of environment is a recognition that buildings and neighborhoods should
be preserved for reasons that go beyond historic or architectural significance. A sense of place
and cultural continuity are increasingly accepted as genuine needs in American society. Equally
widespread is the growing recognition that "quality of life" is intimately related to hospitable
surroundings - in terms of scale, texture, and design of place.