Artist Statement - August 2010

I live and work in Boston, Massachusetts. I have had nineteen solo exhibitions and have been included in numerous gallery, museum and university gallery exhibitions.

My paintings are in oil on gessoed, cradled panels and are framed in wide, flat, black wood. I paint from direct observation in a 'colorito' technique (many layers of glazing) without underdrawing. I achieve clean, vibrant color and where the light has cast one hue into neighboring areas, delicately nuanced color mixtures. A strong, sustained light source is necessary to find order in the baroque, random chaos of folds in cloth. Cords and gravity restrain mass. I build an illusion of hills and valleys of volume from incremental nudgings of paint with small brushes.

The actual subjects are cotton and satin cloth, with twisted cords, ribbons or common string. The wrapped or draped cloth is often juxtaposed with a background filled with the night sky, smoke, fire, clouds or trompe l'oeil scraps of torn paper, string, tacks and tape.

Memory and private thoughts are my primary themes in this artworld age of self-referential over-exposure. Meditation by the viewer on the question, "What is this a painting of?" may provide more than one answer when filtered through individual psychology and a personal bank of memories and desires.

I see cloth as a defining element of Civilization. Fabric does not dictate form but holds it - responding to form or concealing it. Cloth is a curtain, an adornment, a shroud or a protection. The wrapped forms suggest both promise and secrets kept; you might imagine one of your dearest objects beneath the layered folds.

The paintings' titles (such as Mounting Secrets, Gifts for Tomorrow, Suspense, Balanced Memories) often point towards an interpretation, but there is room for viewers to realize varied interpretations of their own. I allow my images to be as elusive as poetic language.