And Then It Got Darker Painting

I've been an abstract painter and printmaker for over fifty years. Living most of my adult life in Berkeley, CA, I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA. Fortunate enough to have had easy access to the Carnegie Museum, I remember Saturday mornings spent wandering the old building with a sense of awe, seeing, for the first time Van Goghs, Matisses and Monets, and experiencing what it felt like to be stirred by composition and color. I remember an essay I wrote in middle school about my fingers “itching” to paint. Attending Carnegie Mellon University throughout high school for pre-college classes and then for my undergraduate degree, I was strongly drawn to the Abstract Expressionists—particularly Robert Motherwell for the strength of his compositions and Helen Frankenthaler for her luscious use of color. For most of my career, I've painted medium to large scale acrylic paintings and bright, colorful monoprints. In the last decade I've been exploring a broader range of techniques and mixed media including encaustic, oil stick, graphite, iridescent and metallic paint, acrylic mediums and water-based pencils and crayons in order to build richer, more textured, and more complex surfaces. I still love to paint as freely as is possible on large canvases, but lately I have become intrigued and challenged to make very small paintings--wanting to make them more intiimate and almost jewel-like. This small work allows for more experimentation and results in work that can be very affordable for buyers with a budget or those who have limited wall space. My work has been exhibited in galleries, invited, and juried shows, in online shows, and in annual Open Studios. My art is on the cover of the Japanese edition of "Multicultural Encounters" by Steven Murphy-Shigamatsu, and has been published in "Artists of the Bay Area," "American Art Collector," and is in many private collections.