Through the work I've done in making paintings during the past thirty years I've learned to see the world around me with more insight. While the physical activity of painting is one that takes place upon the simple two-dimensional plane or surface of the canvas, it is possible, and indeed has been the quest of artists for centuries, to create upon that blank wall a kind of window that looks not only outward towards represented views of nature, but also, through metaphor and symbol, inward, to the mind and soul of the artist, revealing by subject and style a uniquely personal view of life.

As an artist working in the "Realist" tradition I generally choose to paint subjects that are part of everyday experience - commonplace things which might easily be overlooked, but which I've come to view as significant parts of a bigger picture. The "studies" of dead birds, for instance, were painted spontaneously from direct observation after finding their lifeless forms fallen upon the ground near my home or along the roadside. With time these small subjects began to take on a deeper metaphorical meaning, and along with broken and toppled sculptures, have become poetic symbols for fragility and impermanence. In contrast, landscapes looking out to sea express for me an awareness of Spirit or infinity.

My paintings look at a wide variety of things, from small entities close at hand - seashells, flowers, trees, birds, people, rooms, houses - to very large panoramic spaces defined by the elements of landscape - distance, atmosphere, and that elusive quality of light which exists somewhere between the near and the far.

The spherical surfaces I've been painting on during the past few years have provided me with a radical format outside the box of conventional framing wherein I've been able to see outward and around my self in some interesting new ways. New York in the Light of Memory, Winter Branches, and Times Square were exciting explorations of places I've known all my life but recently revisited in this context. These pieces reflect my growing awareness of complex relationships that connect and unify the experiences of both life and art.