Artist Statement

Art has many levels to it. My favorite art process is drawing. I also like clay, glass, fabric, avocado pits, mosaics, prints, collage and doodling.

Color and Movement has been my recent focus in faceted-glass designs. Acquiring twists and turns with textures is my play. Some colors advance in their vibrations, while others recede in cool contrast.  Movement through color has caused me a few sleepless nights because the colors are too beautiful to put down.

I like traditional prints of intaglio and relief styles. I usually work small so a person is compelled to get up close and personal to them. With intaglio, there are several processes to choose from for a print: line etch, soft-ground and aquatint.  I play with a microscopic landscape via chemicals on copper plates.  Despite advancing past the level of “student experimenter”, I continually experiment in how to present an image.   When I work on a relief print, I am composing in black, white and gray. The power of this format is the foundation of all art. Color can not save a composition, but it sure can distract a viewer’s eye and create an emotion. The distilled composition has truth drawn in it.

A man named Russel Tracy use to visit my folks. He took an avocado pit and made a Ti-Ki head from it. He challenged us to make something from that medium. Over time, I made faces with a variety of expressions. Working in such a small, 3D medium has been a good progression of my skills with an exacto knife.  I have made some dolls with these faces.

Collage has been one of my latest artistic expressions. Ray Johnson made “postal art” that was low-brow and went through the mail system. It was not “precious” but was “humorous”.  Humor helps me maintain an even keel through the twists and turns that the world is experiencing. I do not have “answers” to problems, I have answers to compositions.  I have learned a rude form of book making. It’s only “rude” because I forgot the instructions on how to make one, and I will make a book anyway. I’ve been putting collages in these books that consist of drawings around magazine pictures.

Batik is a fabric dyeing process using wax to hold a color, then adding color, then more wax until a composition is complete. Once done dyeing, the wax is removed. The finished work can be used for wall art or wearable art. The dyes sometimes have a mind of their own, so it is difficult to get the same results twice. I have found that my work with faceted glass has informed some of my batik work. And vice versa.  Movement and color are great fun to play with.