Like so many others, I first discovered the indescribable joy of creating as a child. I drew and painted my way through my youth until I graduated high school and then the responsibilities of adulthood took over. In the middle of a career as a investigator I sought relief from the intense stress my job often times placed on me, by taking an art class at a nearby junior college. That familiar jubilance of existence in the right brain soon returned and hooked me back in. I have been making art ever since. I studied under California artist Hillary Miller for over a decade and after retiring from investigations I sought out further instruction and influence from teachers such as Nicki Heenan and Gillian Lee Cox.

I derive so much satisfaction from rendering form that I have concentrated my time on landscapes, portraits, and still life. In my endless quest to let go of perfection and stop painting in realism, I started using tools and drawing media instead of paintbrushes. Squeegees, rollers, a piece of charcoal attached to a twisted stick, combined with collage, have been my go to tools to create form with semi-abstract qualities. Creating blind mono-prints on clay board with oil and working pastel over the oil has given me the ability to then “excavate” back into the materials with scraping tools such as razor blades and pottery tools, to then remove media in various places. This endless dance of putting media down and then excavating away gives me moments in a sublime state of being that is incomparable. I consider myself extremely blessed to live life as a creative.