My development as an artist began as a high school student, fascinated with the Post-Impressionists, especially Cezanne, Van Gough, and Gauguin. I still hold an allegiance to Modern Primitiveness, and Expressionism through color and form. Early 20th century art has always fascinated me. While I rarely make nonobjective images (except in ceramics), it is true that formal organization is a greater factor than content in my art. As I change subject matter from time to time I find inspiration in Fauvism, German Expressionism, Cubism, Bauhaus, Art Nouveau and Art Deco.
Sometimes I feel justified simply to be decorative. It might be easier to say what I am not, in the search for what I am. I am not a naturalist or a realist. Nor am I an idealist. I am certainly not a minimalist but I do marvel at primitive simplicity. Sometimes I favor embellishment so much that I become a maximalist. The styles I don't favor require a detached observer, something I haven't been since my freshman drawing class in college. The subjects and places in my paintings are part of a fantasy world that I create, after reflecting on life experiences. For fifteen years, I painted organic, abstract images that were inspired by my grandmother's backyard garden and the summer of 1969. My newer works are fantasy landscapes that result from reflection on traveling the streets of Georgetown and the Foggy Bottom districts of Washington D.C. My work from the past fifteen years is more organic and rural in nature; my latest work is more geometric and urban.
As I've grown as an artist, the organization of form and color that I have searched for has become more biomorphic and intuitive than measured, intellectual or scientific.