Winter Tug Painting

I was born in Maine but grew up in Silvermine, CT where our family lived until I was 14. My love of art was born there and cultivated by some very eccentric but wonderfully artistic and creative neighbors. I had my pick of artists, painters, poets, sculptors and potters. When my mother noticed my interest I was tutored at the Silvermine Guild of Art. My first set of paints was given to me by one of the artists in the neighborhood. As a kid growing up from toddler to teen I absorbed a lot. Many times I would see some of the actors – in costume – rehearsing lines for their next project. Being interested I asked questions about stage and movie makeup and developed an interest in Hollywood monster movie makeup. Some of my fondest memories are of some of the Halloween monsters I created. By creating these monsters with makeup, I learned about texture, coloring, and facial expressions and use these ideas in my current artwork. While growing up I delivered papers, shoveled snow and cared for pets of my neighbors while they were away. During that time I observed them making art (even watching through their studio windows while I mowed their lawns). Much of what I learned while trying to paint as they did remains with me to this day. After graduating high school, I studied painting and sculpture at SVA – The School of Visual Arts. My early work was strongly influenced by the social climate of the sixties and early seventies. I painted large dramatic canvases that made statements but generated little income that would come from commissioned portraits, architectural scapes, rock n’ roll illustrations and large dramatic birds of prey. When my first child was born, I began working as a caretaker at a manor in Westchester County for a steady income. Even though I closed my studio and packed away my brushes and chisels, in a way I was still involved in art by creating gardens and designing and building several projects around the estate. Many years and experiences would follow that job and those choices. When I put my first love on the shelf, I told myself I will start again next month – next year- someday. Now after thirty plus years it is finally someday. The joys and pains of those years inspire me to paint images of daily life – the interaction of people to each other and situations they find themselves in during their everyday experiences. I now paint with a strength and maturity that drives me to constantly create new work.