ARTIST STATEMENT

One may understand my work as homage to the Western European painting tradition as it manifested itself on American shores. I am attracted to painting because it is an art form with the ability to construct signs, shape representations, describe moments and glimpse the fabric of life. I try to use a pictorial idiom that is visually opulent and complex. My paintings value the interaction between interpreter and text, process and expression.

My pieces are populated by images that have evocative qualities for me. The worlds probed within each work are personal and diacritic even though they paraphrase passages from the art historical record and are also indebted to the subtexts of contemporary culture. Central to their meaning is my perception of folly, the carnival grotesque, the absurd, and the deep-seated preoccupation with affluence, prestige and physical beauty found in our culture. The paintings attempt to probe the attitudes and behavior of men and women. My intent is not to trivialize our lives but to deal with a host of ideas.

Recently I had the opportunity to live and paint in Florence and Rome. The resulting paintings have combined the historical images found in Italy with contemporary American themes.

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