ARTIST STATEMENT

I love to draw. I try to draw every day. I find myself drawing in meetings when most people are taking notes. I draw images that may or may not relate to the subject of the meeting but will help me remember what was discussed. This is something I have been doing since I was a little kid. I was never a good "speller" and it took me a long time before I would do any significant writing so I would draw the things I wanted to explain or express. Many lists for Santa would be pages of detailed drawings of the toys I wanted for Christmas. I still do these types of drawings, especially when I find myself trying to explain something I do not quite understand. I have since moved on to build a vocabulary and some writing skills but prefer drawing my thoughts whenever possible.

I can be found spending countless hours roaming the downtown streets of Rochester as well as foreign city streets reacting to the environment with a wax crayon or graphite pencil in hand, making marks on paper with these interesting surfaces (rubbings frottage Max Ernst). Certainly not a new concept, but one that has served well in making accessible, inexpensive, and energetic visual art and an interesting way to develop an image.

I also like to look for discarded stuff. I have been looking in other people's trash for many years. In fact, this was a favorite pastime for my brother and me.  We would comb the neighborhood the night before garbage pick up. These adventure outings continue to this day. I still cannot pass a trash dump without looking in it. I do this type of adventure outing at the college. Spring cleaning is my favorite time of year. I could go for hours just looking for found objects, in search of something that will later be worked into a painting or assemblage sometimes years later. If I like the look of something or it conjures up a memory or thought it goes into my stash bin for safekeeping.

I work on my art whenever possible. I keep many projects going at once and constantly think about completion of each separately. I do not necessarily work in series; it is more or less working on ideas and the work changes when my ideas change. I have a tendency to work small mostly because I find smaller work to be more manageable.

I jumped on the digital media bandwagon early on. I love working in Photoshop, Illustrator and taking digital photographs. My art studio is rapidly getting smaller and storage problems are rapidly changing. More and more data can be stored on smaller and smaller pieces of plastic. However, I still find that I need to build things with my hands. And have many projects going at once. I am always in search of that perfect discarded piece of wood or partial part of a toy that will take on another life.