Below the Surface Painting

Initially trained in painting and drawing, I have spent most of my art career in ceramic sculpture. Recently I have returned to painting for its greater flexibility. Years of working with three-dimensions and heavy texture have strongly influenced my current painting. I live in the woods of rural Oregon, so the natural world deeply effects my art. I strongly believe in allowing the unconscious to have an important voice in what I create. My work balances the rational trained mind and hand with the untrained, feral right brain. Animals are my primary subject. From age 16 to the present I have studied with a master artist/potter, Esther James. Her powerful influence put me on a path of nature observation and creative self trust. At age 89, she still offers meaningful insights about my work.