My Work

For many years I worked as an arts educator and administrator. I teamed with theatre folks, musicians, dancers and visual artists. Through that collaborative work I encouraged young people and adults to respond to their world through the senses that each of these arts disciplines cultivate. It all had to do with becoming vitally engaged, despite the distractions of modern life.

I studied the Liberal Arts and some design in college and painting afterwards. In recent years I have taught less and painted more. I am interested in communicating the experience of being out-of-doors. The natural world invites us to key into all of our senses; touch, sight, sound and smell are at the forefront of the experience of working in nature. How can one’s perception and interpretation of what is there before us be conveyed on a two-dimensional surface in oil paint? Paint is my medium. Color—relationships, texture, pattern—my language.

My work is largely about New Mexico and the San Luis Valley of Colorado. I find the beauty of both places almost overwhelming. My response is to limit myself to painting more intimate sites—the arroyo, our garden—and to narrow the larger landscapes, by making smaller landscapes to “contain” the great expanses. I work on site because I see nature as my current collaborator.