ARTIST STATEMENT

Growing up bathed in the glow of the Atomic Age is bound to scramble any thinking person’s circuits. From the time America started planting its own mushroom forest out in the vast deserts of the West, I have been turning to art to heal my radiation burns.

As a young artist weathering the chaos of the 1960s in the mountains of northern New Mexico, I painted directly from the landscape. Little did I know that my journey would be more about an internal landscape of self-discovery and spiritual growth. For the next several years, perplexing images began to emerge from the depths of my own psyche. I found that by juxtaposing personal elements of symbol, metaphor and cultural iconography, I was creating a form of open-ended storytelling which offered for each viewer questions raised and answers cryptically unique to their own experience.

I work in a style forged from both traditional and space age ingredients, painting sculpted relief on canvas and creating layered works of arresting depth and intense optical punch. I use archetypal images from retro-pop culture as metaphorical players in a scenario intended to illustrate the mysteries of our common life experience, including the poignancy of death and destruction, but also principles of rebirth, wonder, absurdity, exhilaration and creative freedom.

The dichotomy between all of these aspects, and more, being simultaneously present and available to experience in each moment is a thematic thread that consistently runs through my work. I mix metaphors for a living.