Birthday Girl

Yesterday was this little girls birthday. Isn't she cute? That's a really big bike for her, but she seems to be enjoying the ride. How did she get from then to now? It's certainly an introspective time for me, coming to this age of 68. There, I've said it, now you all know. I spend time thinking about what it feels like to have come this far in life without achieving all my goals. So much wished for, so little time left to do it. What does this mean? Were my plans and goals unrealistic? What got in the way? LIFE, got in the way, and continues to do so. So now what? Reevaluate? Reconsider? Make new plans? Consider fewer less lofty goals? What is my life about? It's about being an artist and sharing what I see in the world and how I interpret it, with others, and sometimes only with myself. Though that one has always been a challenge, needing to generate income from the work effects the way one approaches each project, even each day. Life has interrupted yet again recently and clogged the flow. I have confidence that it will begin again, I just need to be patient. So I've returned to unfailing "fall-back" processes, intuitive work with only the goal of getting something artfully down on paper. The new definition is altered books, for me it's just what I've always done, Collage. I like the small format of the books and the purposeful recycling. Never throw away a book, giving it new life as a canvas for new art comes easy for me and has no end, only beginnings.

For me it always begins with the color, and then the elements. My work is about process, the process of using unlikely combinations of elements and materials that are not at first recognizable, if ever. I particularly find irresistible those things that are not considered to be “artist materials”, adding texture, shape and depth by searching my vast collection of “finds” and “cast-offs” for just the perfect compositional components for each piece. I particularly enjoy the thrill of transforming a thing someone else has discarded as “useless” and having it become just the “right” element for a particular composition.
I believe God has blessed me with a keen sensitivity to color harmonies along with the ability to combine many diverse and unusual elements and techniques into work that begs the viewer to “come in close”. My pieces are “built” layer upon layer, technique upon technique with intuitive and spontaneous development fueled by the colors and diversity of materials. For over 40 years I have been striving to make something wonderful from mostly nothing.