Overview

The Visible Man Revealed is a series that began as a response to the Visible Man model of my childhood. (A photo of the original box cover appears in the last frame.) I am constantly intrigued with the figure and wanted to use the interior spaces as a cataloguing system or a series of thematic collections. In this case, I used common male archetypes and collected images and sayings to describe each one.

Eventually, I plan to print these figures life-sized on banners so that they can appear in indoor and outdoor public locations.

Overview

Painting on paper lends itself to altering the size of the surfaces. Some pieces need to have a little edge removed and occasionally, entire paintings are torn down. I save all of the torn pieces regardless of size and have been doing this for over 30 years. The recombined 'tiles' create a visual rewriting or reorganizing of my history where nothing is lost, but rather transformed. I see this breaking down and building up as a metaphor for constantly re-mapping or recreating my way of processing, moving through life, and making art. The pieces are like stones or mosaics and the meditation is in finding each piece's perfect placement.

Overview

My current body of work, "Human Icons" is an attempt to visually braid images of humanity, veneration, and the sacred. I am attempting to make visible transformations within the people they depict. Though the context is secular, I noticed distinct similarities to theses "statues" (see Statues: In Memory of My Father"). I asked, "When was the moment these painted figures exposed or revealed their divine selves?"
This group of religious icons has been modified. They began as a tribute to my recently deceased father, honoring his name, birth/death dates and the images that were important to him. I wondered whether there was a point during the alteration process when these religious images were no longer considered "holy."
(See "Human Icons" entry for companion project.)

Overview

My paintings are primarily large and segmented into 2, 3, or more parts. Many of the panels are older paintings reassembled and reworked. I do this as a recycler and because the separation of panels refers to our fractured lives and the ways we are constantly piecing them back together.

The pieces are multi-layered: drawn, painted, scratched into, stencilled under and over. The figures emerge from a long history of surfaces and ghosted images. Some of the paintings can be in process for ten years or more. I allow the "old" images to show through, some sections visible in their entirety while other areas are largely obscured. It is important to me to keep intact the visual timeline that occured in creating each piece.
I create from the inside out in a sense, showing the emotional fabric of things rather than the way they look.

My current body of work, "Human Icons" is an attempt to visually braid images of humanity, veneration, and the sacred. I am attempting to make visible transformations within the people they depict. Though the context is secular, I noticed distinct similarities to my recent series of "statues". (See Statues: In Memory of My Father".) I asked, "When was the moment these painted figures exposed or revealed their divine selves?"

Overview

Several years ago, I heard a scientist friend say that our bodies are made up of hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and carbon. Because of my orientation as a figurative painter, this idea enchanted me I had been searching for ways to describe the figure without being so literal, and I began to make paintings of the elements of the body. Little by little, I selected other words, "US, THEM, ME, YOU" for instance, to explore ideas of stance, positioning and allegiance.

Each word or set of words finds its way to my studio once every month or two. Their widely interspersed arrivals offer me the opportunity to contemplate each word visually and conceptually. Now, with approximately 25 words at my disposal, I have begun to piece them together to form paintings with more specific meanings. Through this painted poetic process, I am exploring the complexities of language.

Overview

Donna asked me to paint a portrait of her. She wasn't sure what she wanted beyond that. I asked what her favorite shape was - a heart - and that became the visual starting point for the piece. She added several words that were important to her. I did the rest. These are the stages of the painting from beginning to completion.

Most of my paintings are made on top of older or unfinished paintings. Other pieces are on surfaces where I am visually searching before making a piece. In the searching phase, I apply color, stamp words and designs, and put down images I'm thinking about that are not coalesced into an idea. It is both exciting and challenging to pulling an image out of an existing jumble of line and color. Many layers are added so the surface or "skin" of the painting is complicated.

Overview

Faces, is an ongoing series of mixed media portraits on watercolor paper using acrylic, pastel, ink, colored pencil, and collage. Each of the panels measure approximately 22� x 10�. The images are created from memory, observation and imagination. There are over 240 faces to date.
These faces represent individuals who form pairs, trios, and a collective. They are real people, alive, changing, vulnerable and genuine. I am telling their stories.

Overview

Overview

This book was created as part of The Sketchbook Project, an international project that will travel nationally. The collection will be permanently installed at The Brooklyn Art Library in New York.

I requested my sketchbook in late October and it arrived right away with the theme Adhere to me (assigned randomly) imprinted on the back cover. I let it sit on the kitchen table for a week while a multitude of possibilities percolated¦ duct tape, bubble gum, sticky fly and mousetraps, rubber cement. Adhere to me, adhere to me. What does that mean? The phrase became garbled letters without ideas and then slowly clarified into phrases, the best of which became the first pages. More churning ensued with no focus at all. I set the project aside. Within a few days, the book called me to look at what I spend my time thinking about, obsessing over, losing sleep as a result of, and so on. My thoughts adhere to me and these obsessions, connected because they reside in my mind, became the chapters in my book.

I am an avid recycler, you could say transformer of things that are headed for the landfill. I collect scraps of paper, small pieces of plastic that have holes in them. The nettings on fruit, vegetables and garlic are beautiful to me. They come in a variety of colors and sizes. The holes are square and diamond-shaped, small to large openings, one and two-ply. They support, conceal, contain their contents. I love them for their beauty and detest them for their wastefulness. They became a necessary part of my book.

Likewise, there is a lot of waste in the studio at the college where I teach part-time. I have made other pages using these castaways as well. When something is headed for the trash at home, I always hesitate. I wonder what I could make with this?

Overview

In the winter, when the weather gets cold, I make work that is smaller and can be moved closer to the wood stove. I have been performing this ritual for many years. My two primary cold weather projects are sewn: rag shirts and figures. Though the materials are more textile based, these two ways of working still pay homage to the figure and always bring energy back to my paintings.

THE PAINTING RAG SHIRTS
I have been saving my painting rags for over 25 years. Because the colors and patterns created on the cut up T-shirts were remnants of the paintings I'd created, it was difficult to part with them. A number of years ago, I began to hang the rags on the wall, then sort the fabric into short and long sleeves, bottom edges, necklines and middle sections. It seemed natural to sew them back together. The process became a way to reference the figure and my own history as a painter without using the body itself. In addition, this ongoing series transforms the rags into "paintings" in their own right.

THE SEWN FIGURES
I began to create the sewn figures for the first time in the summer of 1992 in an attempt to finally quit smoking. It was a relentless habit for over 20 years and had escalated into 3-4 packs per day. I called smoking my life support system. Sewing gave me an opportunity to use both of my hands and focus completely on a creative task where I had little experience and no expectations. I knew how to thread a needle and perform a basic looping stitch. Without hesitation, I began the first figure. Sewing quickly replaced smoking and though the withdrawal process was not easy, my hands were kept busy. Making these figures has remained a passion, particularly during the winter months.

All of the pieces are constructed entirely of recycled and discarded materials. The embellishments also find their way to me as castoffs:beads and buttons, now broken jewelry my grandmother collected, and anything that has a hole in it. Each of the figures has at least one area of obsessive attention. They are places of acknowledgement, celebration and healing.