FACES - The human face is the form we know best and is an endless source of inspiration.  This form has been a major part of my work from the very beginning.  In the 70’s I studied with Alex Katz and Paul Georges.  Their strong points of view regarding scale and image had a lasting impact on me.  My first exhibition consisted of oversized portrait drawings of fellow art students.  These were created with bold marks using oil pastel and paper.  Later exhibits featured huge, oversized heads with the eyes closed as though in a state of dreaming.  The wood panel supports were intensely painted and carved. The panels were hinged, which allowed the viewer not only to touch, open and manipulate the work but to seemingly peer inside at another’s thoughts or dreams. 

FISH - In 2000-2001, I lived and worked literally high in the mountains of Venezuela in a remote forested site.  I was drawing and working daily amongst huge plant forms.  Only very thin trails connected the house and studios.  This leafy environ, devoid of horizon or sky, eventually began to suggest the sensation of being amongst a school of swimming fish.  Not able to see much more than the most proximal of forms, I began to envision another style of spatial concept and found myself thinking again of fish.  Starting with a large 8 x 12 foot woodcut, a series of monotype images that were complex and experimental evolved.  There were abstract, figurative; symbolic and yet accessible.  The challenges they presented seemed, at times, more formal.  However, the very nature of these rhythmic, undulating forms referred to the environment itself - the landscape and the very struggle to survive.