Where do my ideas come from?  My subject matter is taken from my personal experiences as well as the environment around me.  Recent travel, dog walks, grocery shopping, rest stops on the turnpike, disability, social issues and shared experiences are some examples.  5/11/18 was my personal 9/11.  A moment in time can draw a line between the before and the after.  I’m drawn to scenes that have a story. I keep a sketchbook at my side and a notebook with me always.  Thoughts are numerous and fleeting, vanishing with the next thought that comes to mind.  I attempt to capture them:  taking a note, making a sketch, getting a picture. 

Design elements, i.e. the composition, the interplay of light and shadow catch my eye and seem to illustrate the abstract words in my mind. Travel is part of my life.  Several times a year I go to a place I have never been.  Travel gives a fresh perspective to see ordinary events in a new light.  

Some works lend themselves to the additional layering of photographs.  Every work starts with a drawing. The marks on paper create the image, out of the blankness. To some paintings, I add another layer, taking photographs of the image or the environment itself.  The cut up photographs add an element of surprise and depth.  I never know how it is going to turn out.  It is like a puzzle.  The elements of design, composition, color, form, shape, and line have to work together to make a clear statement and go beyond just an abstraction – it has to tell a story and give meaning, yet be open enough so that every person can come in and fill in the meaning with their own experiences.  The challenge is in the balancing act, an intuitive understanding of the pieces and working them until it is just right, until they all fit.  That is why I am using visual elements rather than linear words.  Text, however, can be one more element in the work.  If you draw a circle with a gap where the ends don’t quite meet, the viewer will close the gap automatically.  How big can the gap be and the image still be understood to be a circle?  This is an analogy to the puzzle.  Success is when the “pieces” all fit together and there couldn’t be any other solution.

Regardless of the media, drawing, painting, or photo collage; my works are all flat two dimensional worlds contained within the space.  I’m using recognizable imagery to tell a story, to invite the viewer into my world, to share my world and collaborate in the meaning of the piece.