I have a life-long interest in many art forms including painting, photography, contemporary dance, and music (jazz, 20th century classical/electronic). These interests sparked from classes in art history, jazz piano improvisation and composition while I was in graduate school although the seeds were planted in childhood. When I moved to Chicago my interests were enormously fed by the vibrant art scene here and I began collecting art.
I quit working in 2020 and decided to get serious about painting. Since childhood I have always loved drawing and painting and have taken a few classes over the years. I talked with artists friends about technique, brushes, paints and then started anew so I really am a self-taught artist. What then evolved in my work incorporated elements of Hopper, Hockney, Thiebaud, and Precisionism.
Pandemic Painting. During the 2020-2021 pandemic I began a series of structured capsules or “pills” relating to the pharmaceutic industry. After the quarantine ended, my last “pill” was hallucinogenic, unrestrained and played with background/foreground. Next, I turned to totems and water towers, allowing me to continue exploring a central image, improvising the background around it.
Strange Neighbors Series For source material, I found photos on-line of small, common houses that were slightly disheveled but had personality which appealed to my reverence for the everyday. By painting these homes and inventing odd tableaux, the homes acquired a strange new life. Some include tv antennae and clothes lines which are a nod to my childhood.
Big Box Obit Series. I have found painting abandoned big box retail stores as a way to see late-stage capitalism’s effect on communities. What happens to the workers, the building, the local economy? I like the quaint, inherent beauty of these structures and often add elements to see the spaces anew. The source materials are online pics of old KMarts, Circuit City, Sears and others.