Resume

Artist Statement

Originally from Southern California, I moved to Tacoma in the summer of 1996.  Growing up in Los Angeles among the congestion and hordes of people forces you to push for a little space.  I've always spent time at the beach.  There's something about the sand, sea and sky, with very little to interrupt their mass, that is visually arresting.  Their forms and colors are simple, the expanse enormous.  Their combined effect on my work .... simplicity.

I am a draftsman.  Until recently simplicity was all encompassing in my work.  I worked only in black and white in graphite, charcoal or carbon dust.  Except for a very few pieces, I focused on a single object. My intention was for the viewer to enjoy the space around the object, to breathe, to slow down, to meditate.

My primary interest was in the surface and textures of objects found in nature.  These were everyday objects like rocks or shells, but objects we rarely take the time to study. I hoped with this work to allow the viewer a moment to simply enter the stillness with me, to see beyond the object itself.

While researching artists this past year my work began to change.  My earlier work had a photographic quality. Photos capture a moment in time, but we have little  sense of what came before or after that shot was taken.  While researching other artists I found myself most drawn to work that gave me a history. Work that wasn't perfect, but which kept the errant lines, the adjusted angle, the corrections. These drawings helped me begin to understand how the artist made their decisions, and I began to examine mine.

2007 was a year of change in my work.  Many pieces are now in color and are mixed media, both of which are indicators of my move to not be so literal.  I, too, have added additional stories or history to my work.  To paraphrase a friend, "It’s not about the mark, but what the mark represents."  I disagree. To me it is about the mark.