A B O U T

The youngest of five children, I grew up on the farmland plains of Southwestern Kansas. My cultural experiences as a child were - agricultural in nature. Those early years instilled a sense of self-reliance, resourcefulness, and an appreciation for the beauty residing within the simple and unadorned. I've always had the ability to draw. Whenever I'd get to singing the blues, my Mom would set me up with pencil and paper, or some clay, and that's all I needed. I was always drawing and making things. An early experience as a child grew to become a fundamental aspect of my artistic practice. Drawing from a photo in a favorite book, of football players in action on a muddy field - there was a moment in the drawing where I became lost in the abstraction created by the mud splattered uniforms. No longer concerned with drawing the identity of things, I became swept up in the freedom of seeing the shapes and values as qualities unto themselves - liberated from their identifying contexts. That experience was a first glimpse and an awakening to the true nature of the gifts of my ability and the beginning of my trust and reliance on my intuitive sense to serve as my guide in navigating my growth and development as an artist. (And would ultimately become the basis & inspiration for the "Meditation Series" of drawings.) My experiences with art instruction tended to be contentious and less than inspiring. I wanted to make my own discoveries and wasn't much interested in someone else's version of the truth. In finding my own way, I believed I was better able to discover my own unique voice and contribution. The means and methods of my creative process were comprised of chasing one inspiration after another, with no regard whatsoever for working in any kind of a linear progression. I was thrilled by the change of direction: completing a work, then heading off in a different direction entirely. The only real disciplined aspect of my artistic practice was - I never stopped working. I was learning and making what I felt to be - my own discoveries. Progressively woven into my restless, curiosity driven forays of exploration, was a desire for foundation, and a growing need for the grounding ballast of structure and purpose: Through drawing, to tap into the underlying source of the beauty residing within the structures of form. The human figure had been a constant - reoccurring element in my drawing, and my desire for a more in-depth study of anatomy led to my making the acquaintance of a professor at the anatomical illustration department at C.S.U. Being impressed by my disciplined, self-directed study, I was invited to draw and sit in on his classes of anatomical dissection and forensics facial reconstruction. This experience grounded me and provided the foundation from which to proceed toward what I believed would be a more poetic and lyrical focus of exploration and study: the work of the Italian and Northern Renaissance. I discovered there a kind of mentorship and sense of community. Entering into the compositions of works which have endured as the pinnacle of artistic achievement, awakened in me a kind of personal renaissance. By transcribing the thoughts of the masters of the Renaissance onto the gently arcing plains of the elliptical sphere, I gained a unique insight into something pure, fundamental, and timeless. All the while, as I was drawing from these works, the seeds were being sown as to how I would employ and carry forward the wealth of this experience. Great works should inspire a life beyond themselves - fulfilling the promise of their purpose when serving to illuminate and inspire the imaginations of those who experience them. My turning to the work of the Renaissance fortuitously coincided with my return to the egg - to the elliptical sphere. Throughout history, the egg has been seen as a universal symbol of life, creation, and rebirth. The very definition of "Renaissance" is one of rebirth and renewal. The prevalent figurative nature of the compositions from which I drew proved ideally suited to the form. The resonant synthesis created from the coalescence of these two was a revelation to me, and I felt I had arrived at the discovery of a fundamental essence: a unity of imagery and form. Through the years, what has emerged from my ever-questioning search for the underlying origins of my attraction to the form, are these - what I believe to be - fundamental truths: The egg - is a vessel created to protect and nurture a life evolving. The egg becomes an elliptical sphere when emptied of its contents. No longer a vessel protecting and nurturing a life within, its utility transitions into form - becoming a kind of microcosm of our world, a natural creation with a continuous, uninterrupted surface, ideally suited to receive and convey the imagery of drawing. The elliptical sphere - is the expression of form in a state of becoming. The trajectory of the arc of its surface is variable and dynamic. A paradoxically infinite surface within a finite form. The sphere - is form reconciled. The trajectory of the arc of its surface is constant and resolved. I believe this absence of variability is the reason I've never felt compelled to draw on a sphere. The flat rectangular plane - is a construct - an abstraction devised by man to quantify the infinite. The functionality of the rectangle lies in its predictability and order. Mystery provokes curiosity; Curiosity inspires pursuit; Pursuit collides with the myriad challenges of possibility; Challenges spur adaptation and growth; Growth is life - ever evolving toward the realization and fulfillment of the Gift. ...So man, who here seems principal alone, Perhaps acts second to some sphere unknown, Touches some wheel, or verges to some goal; 'Tis but a part we see, and not a whole. Alexander Pope, 1688 - 1744. From his "Essay on Man," Epistle I