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Artist's Statement
My training was in Fine Arts before I went into Illustration. I have a BFA cum laude from the University of Michigan in Drawing and Painting. And yet the compelling aspect of the image has been prominent in my art, even when I break away from illustration per se. I think the reason for that is because deep down inside, I have the heart of a story-teller. Where we draw the line between Illustration and Fine Art is a blur. Norman Rockwell, a leading illustrator was finally accepted as a Fine Arts painter, and some of the loosest, most undiscernible paintings I have seen were no contemporary gallery abstracts but fantasy game illustrations.
So where am I going with my fine art? I feel no obligation to accept other people's labels. To me, Fine Art includes representational works of non-fiction just as much as my abstract exploration of the visual presentation for the sake of the visual experience. But it is in this later abstract art that I am finding ever-greater interest.
As a Fine Artist I have been exploring what makes painting special and different from the digital images being produced today. I want to push the medium in directions that the camera and the computer cannot go. I see no reason to stay confined to the strictly two-dimensional surface, and the historian in me recognizes the potential of materials such as genuine gold and thick transparent glazing. To me, this kind of art is a quest to find new ways of looking at concepts, and to seek the inherent beauty and power of the materials when used to create a rich aesthetic. I love the way genuine gold seems to shimmer and melt into the paint, and how it raises up in curves and texture that capture light and shadow, reflecting the environment surrounding it. I love the way obscure and unexpected three-dimensional materials can work within the paint to create form and substance. And I love the intimate participation of the artist applying layers of paint representing one concept overlaid upon another.