Sonata #8 Print

I was born October 1951 in Bradenton, Florida, attended the Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida, as well as the Atlanta College of Art. Steve and family moved to Atlanta, Georgia, in 1991 where I lived until 2007, when I moved to and currently reside in the Denver, Colorado area. Careful, intimate analysis of structure, light and mass is the essential method I employ in my creative process. I believe the very act of observation brings the observed phenomena into existence. Transformation of this simple notion into a visual experience occupies the core of my art. I consider all objects of the Natural World with an equal level of scrutiny and importance. I look for patterns, geometries and coded redundancies that echo throughout our universe, be they as microscopic as spiral path of a subatomic particle, or as massive as the entire visual universe itself. Here scale is meaningless. I generally work at a large scale, which compliments the visual impact tremendously. Indeed it is this initial impact, often perceived from a distance, which draws the viewer into the work where a more intimate connection between observer and the observed is achieved. I see the picture plane as a portal which beckons the viewer to enter. The oftentimes vertical orientation of my paintings suggests such a doorway. On the subject of composition, I am of the opinion that a strong drawing is essential in creating a framework upon which my painting is structured. The application of pigment merely serves to compliment the initial drawing as an extension of drawing itself. I do not delineate a point where drawing stops and painting begins.