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My life and therefore, my work, has been divided into a series of seven year cycles based upon my association with academia. Looking back, you can see that pattern in the timing of major directional change in my work. Most of the changes were evolutionary in nature. I spent one half of 1992 living and studying the unique regional architecture and art found in and around Santa Fe, New Mexico that grew as a result of the mix between Native Americans, Spanish explorers and the artists attracted to the area. Strong relationships between wall, sky, and earth dictated a representational approach to capture the essence of this environment. I have always used layering or perspective to create the illusion of depth in my work. The evolution from Mondrian like geometrical based abstractions to hard edged realism with more and more glimpses of buildings and streets as abstractions of reality eventually led to a focus on architectural elements that reflected or diffused reality.  I was intrigued by the stark quality of openings in massive simple walls. All of the interest and detail was in the window and way the sun played across the window elements in combination with the transparent and reflective qualities of glass. Photo realism of sorts?

● sold, in private collections       

Patmos Series   1997 - 1987

Vestiges plus Island Vestiges led to the Patmos Series. I decided to increase the importance of the image and downplay the visual strength of the abstract ordering of the various planes.  No negative space. The planes of the Vestige and Island Vestige Series remained but, the definition of the planes would be done without the use of light and shadows. Scale of the image was to be the only perceptual tool I would use. I chose images with a strong sense of perspective to reinforce the depth of the painting and then enlarged the image as the planes receded.  The idea worked even better than I hoped. All of the paintings were done based upon street scenes of the Island of Patmos, Greece with the exception of Rio Tera Secondo (Venice, Italy), Ghost of the Queen (Queen Mary, the cruise ship anchored in L.A.), and Windows (Santa Fe, New Mexico). 

● sold, in private collections         

Island Vestige Series   1992 - 1987

Patmos and Santorini are two of the white islands of Greece. I thought it would be fun and challenging to recreate the ambiance and sense of place where most things are painted white using the minimal amount of realism. Where do you lose the sense of place?  That edge or point was what I was trying to achieve. This transition between the Vestiges and Patmos Series was a group of paintings where different scaled images were mentally projected on  articulated planes of different depths. The images were only visible in the shadows my carved planes cast on one another. The planes and grid reinforced the ninety degree geometry of the canvas. A whole rationale for proportion and rhythm independent of the images was developed. I am still doing that but with different ordering systems.  Fragments of real images  were introduced to give the viewer a puzzle to solve as well as generating paintings with visual depth and interest. Light created the color changes and only minimal architectural symbols and elements were required to capture the sense of place. My fascination with the subtle changes in warm and cold earth colors began with this series.

Vestige Series   1989 - 1985

Part of my current idea originated with this early series. At the time, I was interested in challenging a viewer’s perception of a flat rectangle hanging on a wall. I still am. I wanted to make the viewer believe the surface was not flat. Instead, you were intended to see a series of articulated planes suspended in air and whose color and form were defined and articulated by the sun’s rays passing through filters before hitting the planes.  This interaction between man and nature was explored via my mental three dimensional constructs viewed under an intense light source and through rectangular filters of varying opaque and color qualities. The operative word was mental for these constructs as their interactions existed only in my mind. The vestige painting are those afterimages.   Articulated planes of different depth are still major elements  in the implementation of the idea.  Emphasis on light is definitely still part of the idea.  These paintings should be classified as representational art.  They represented what I was seeing in my mind. Their abstract qualities came from the nature of the subject matter.