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I began painting in 2000, when I retired from my academic professorship in social work and gerontology. Unlike other artists, I have not been scribbling and drawing since childhood with a repressed yearning to be an artist. Rather, I discovered that my love of color and of nature could be satisfied by explorations in paint and abstract forms and that I loved the activity of painting. I began identifying artists whose work I admired, such as Helen Frankenthaler and Jackson Pollock, and practiced techniques related to their works. In addition, I have taken art classes and private studies to explore a wider variety of approaches. I enjoy the learning process and the challenge of continued explorations in style and themes. Most of us live under an assumption that we can control our lives and environment, but random events, accidents, politics, or weather frequently create experiences beyond our control. My art embodies the struggle to resolve the irrepressible consequences of chance events. Using a variety of techniques, such as layering, scraping and brushing paint, I explore color and subtle shape variations. As I work, I am drawn in by the play of paint, texture, rhythm, color, and form. I draw upon my internal images of nature and landscape as inspiration, rather than reference to specific places or events. I try to encompass the looseness and happenstance of nature through the random processes I impose on the painting. My intent is to gain control of the arbitrary in order to create a purposeful mood of contemplation and sense of beauty. |
