Praetor with Fish #1
acrylic on canvas
$1100.

Artist Statement

I am a Detroit area artist working primarily as a painter, and occasionally in mixed-media and sculpture. I have been a working studio artist my entire adult life, as well as an art educator on the university level, including the last few years as an Associate Professor at the College for Creative Studies, in Detroit, Mi.

Most of my work consists of large-scale acrylic paintings, with some mixed media materials adding texture and depth. I am interested in every possible way to visually convey energy, movement, power, and intensity. I arrive at this goal through three primary methods. First, the frenetic application of the paint. I try to paint with the same active movements inherent in my subject matter, make quick decisions, and lose myself, as much as possible, in the process. Second, I allow the spontaneity of gravity, of the happy accident, and of the viscous nature of the paint itself to discover visuals outside of my conscious intensions.   And finally, and maybe most importantly, I use color as a forceful element, juxtaposing bright vs. dull, warm vs. cool, and busy areas of multilayered hues vs. calm flat spaces.

The subject matter of the bulk of my work is figurative, whether human or animal. I usually arrive at a given composition through sketching… doodling, really, although I believe the more dignified term is automatic drawing. And although these sketches often depict animals, I am less interested in the naturalistic representation of bears, horses, buffaloes, or dogs, than I am in the archetypal connections a viewer may make to each of these subjects. Oscar Wilde said, “Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist not of the sitter” and I think of that when anyone asks me if a particular painting is of my actual dog, or if I’m just really fond of buffaloes. No, that’s not my actual dog (well, okay… sometimes) and yes, I am fond of buffaloes. But mostly, I’m choosing the subject to illustrate some aspects of myself that I might not be able to articulate in any other successful way.