Since I was a child growing up in rural Massachusetts, I've labored happily at image-making. To me, art was never so much pretty or comfortable as visually challenging and expressive. Credit this to an encounter as a two-year old in 1954 with a picture book on van Gogh. Fast forward to the past decade in which I dallied  with non-traditional drawing techniques. At that critical moment, my work shifted from built up paint surfaces to a subtractive monotype technique which opened my eyes and stimulated production.  I go back periodically to my old favorites, Giotto, Goya, Gorky, and, since I'm stuck on the letter 'G', I might as well mention Philip Guston's 'ugly' art and Red Grooms' Ruckuses, but I also admire Judy Pfaff's installations, Deborah Butterfield's horses, and Patrick Dougherty's weavings.   Jasper Johns, Ukiyo e, Durer, and others, inform my printmaking, but this is discovery learning for me.  I confess that my first impulse in art is toward abstract expressionism.  Perhaps I'm doing in ink what Jim Dine claimed he was doing in his paintings.  He said he was just an abstract artist looking for images to hang paint on.  For me, especially in this instance, I'm finding heroes to hang ink on. 

 

Education

 

Wesleyan University (Connecticut), B.A., Studio Art/Art History

University of South Florida, Honors Painting

University of Hartford (Connecticut), Graduate Monotype Workshops

 

Exhibitions/Awards:

 

Named Outstanding Arts Educator in Massachusetts, 1986, Massachusetts Alliance for Arts in Education

 

Participant in numerous juried Florida Art Education Association shows, 1986-1999

 

Octagon Gallery, Clearwater, FL; Two-Person Show, 1996

 

Whitewater Art Competition,  Indiana University East, Richmond, IN; juried exhibition, October, 2008

 

Richmond Art Museum Annual Juried Exhibition, Richmond, IN; awarded printmaking prize;  November, 2008