The Omnivore's Dilemma, One River, The White Rock, The Cairo Trilogy

Babette's Feast, Persepolis, The Lives of Others, Walkabout, Frozen River

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After many years of work as a jeweler and metalsmith, the demands of extremely refined, planned, and controlled surfaces left me ready to work in a manner less dictated by the material itself.
The series of paintings I am working on now is based on memory of travels in the rain forest of Peru. I'm using acrylics on paper and a method of painting that allows me to me to work in increments of time and incorporate unplanned elements into the work - what has been called "controlled accident." Very thin layers of acrylics are the perfect medium for this type of work in which I can let the image direct itself to a certain extent. I also apply some of the paint using materials such as leaves and twigs, pieces of paper, or even string. At times I flood the paper with water and remove much of the paint, reapply it, lift it off in some other manner and begin again. In this series of paintings it's a perfect metaphor recreating the cycle of growth, flooding, dieback, and regrowth in a tropical rain forest.

gardening, life-long learning, bird watching