Biographical Information:
During my four decades as a professional mural painter, I developed techniques that made it possible to work in the studio rather than on site. My clients ranged from celebrities to large hospitals and pretty much everything in between. For the last decade I focused on the public arts, working occasionally with the Department of Cultural Affairs, Los Angeles Arts Commission, and directing the Public Arts Initiative for The Museum of the San Fernando Valley.
Today I no longer paint murals, but I use a similar process for making my paintings in the studio. I work from photos on the computer, deconstructing detailed images of nature, painting them in small squares and reassembling them into large paintings.
I am currently teaching a class on drawing and design for industrial design students at Mt. SAC Community College. I enjoy teaching and giving back to students the skills that helped bring me income and passion over the years. I have a BA of Fine Arts from CSUN and over 35 years of professional experience.
Artist statement:
My purpose with these paintings is to record our existing natural world and preserve it in painting. I would like to share my love of being immersed in nature. There are so many different color palettes, depending on the seasons and the times of day. From the tops of our local mountains, you can see the entire city of Los Angeles. We have built up to the very edge of habitable land and now we are having to learn to co-exist with nature. How will it look here 100 years from now? What does nature have in store for us? What kind of world will my daughter and future generations see and live in?
I love how you can blow up digital photos to almost unrecognizable sections and when painted, each section becomes a small abstract painting. When you put them back together, they return to a very realistic detailed photographic image. The painting can be blurry and messy up close but from a distance very detailed. The grid has a layering effect, as if we are seeing through a window or perhaps looking back through time, remembering when access to nature was easy.
