I am an artist living in downtown Carrboro, NC, the cooler half of the Chapel Hall-Carrboro megalopolis.  My day job is at a non-profit called Regional Technology Strategies, a glorious four minute walk from home

I began painting in the spring of 2006 in my 47^th year, approximately 33 years since being told by my eighth-grade art teacher that I had no talent.  Since middle school thertistic work was furniture making.  Painting came along at the right time in my life as I battled with depression and the end of a 25-year relationship.  Painting kept me grounded and allowed me to express what I had found inexpressible.  Here I was in Washington, DC during the spring of 2006 for work and decided to visit the Dada exhibit at the National Gallery. I was shaken by the world the Dadaists were experiencing, the ideas that drove them and the similarities to our present circumstances. Their reaction to the absurdity and tragedy of the 1910s, WWI and the negative aspects of technology made me feel like I was in a time warp. Was 2006 really just a new version of 1919?

The exhibit was so disturbing that I had the first panic attack of my life -- I had to get out of there. At the same time I was drawn to the art, the artists and the story. I went back twice more and then again at the MOMA in NY in August.

I started with collage and mixed media using the materials I had on hand:  old cabinet doors, house paint, magazines, and hard wood flooring sealant.  Since then I’ve mostly stayed with acrylics but I’ve dabbled with pen and ink, watercolor, charcoal and pencil.  Recently I’ve spent much time with oil pastels on watercolor paper.

My influences, after the Dadaists, include many of the Abstract Expressionists especially Rothko, Kline, Motherwell, Pollock, Rauschenberg and Joan Mitchell.  I’ve recently become enamored with the Color Field movement after seeing an exhibit in DC.  I was overwhelmed by the work of Jules Olitski, Helen Frankenthaler, and Morris Lewis and encouraged by what they accomplished with acrylics.

Shows