Though I've painted for a long time, my focus has intensified since the late 90s. I now do sculpture as well as painting, and lately I've been doing pastels, which seem to force me to use intense colors (a very useful exercise). I love painting people in their spaces, where they have surrounded themselves with stuff--either through choice or unconsciousness (usually both). In 2004, I concentrated on the Meat series, preparing for the show in September, and I continue to work on it in between other pieces. Currently, I am doing a series of paint "sketches" of people who are willing to sit for me for a few hours.
"I was born in Chicago, graduated from Syracuse University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, and now reside in the San Francisco bay area.

People & Interiors Series
The relationship of people to their space, to their things and to other people continues to pull me back to painting this particular series. We are both territorial and social creatures. Our culture has evolved to support the territoriality, frequently isolating us from each other. Within our spaces, we then surround ourselves with “stuff,”creating uniquely American tableaux.

My paintings of people involve drawings, primarily. Sketching is vital to capturing my feeling of the place and person I am experiencing.

I usually have one or two master drawings from which I select the painting I want to create. While I used to transfer the drawings to the canvas, I am now sketching on the canvas directly, inspired by but not restricted to the existing drawing. I work fast, as I do in sketching, to capture a freshness. Sometimes the first paint laid down is the best, and it stays as is; other parts I work into a greater finish, depending on where I want the focus to go.

Meat Series
I am drawn to meat by its suggestiveness. I find it to be as
seductive as it is disturbing.

Lest one think I am on a vendetta to politicize meat and/or convince the viewer to become a vegetarian, I am not. (I personally am not a vegetarian; in fact, I try to work fast enough that whatever meat I am painting does not go to waste but rather ends up on my and my dogs’ plates.) We have a tendency not to think through our everyday assumptions, however, and it is toward that end that I present meat for your enjoyment.

Additionally, pieces of meat have both great sensuality as well as personality. In painting many T-bone steaks, I find that each is remarkably unique. They are suggestive while also repulsive, raw, bloody and vulnerable.

With my meat pieces (and all of my still lifes), I work directly from the object at hand. In the case of meat, I have to work fast, for it decays and changes quickly under the lights. I am particularly drawn to T-bones because of the quintessential nature of that meat to the American consciousness.

Influences

My teachers have included Jerome Witkin & Alice Neel. My influences include David Hockney, Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Soutine, Bonnard, Ben Hartley (UK), Sam Messer (LA), Bob Alexander (NY), Milton Avery, Vermeer, Frank Auerbach, Matisse, Picasso, Bruegel, Benton, Ruscha, Steinberg…and many others. This list is constantly changing and evolving.

Resumé

Education

Solo Exhibitions

Selected Private and Public Collections

Industrial Light & Magic, San Rafael, California
Tyson Foods, Arkansas
Mr. & Mrs. James Ball, London, England
Mr. Stephen Baum, Greenwich, Connecticut
E. Beder, Washington, D.C.
Kim Bromley & David Carson, San Rafael, CA
Mr. & Mrs. Peter Daulton, Novato, CA
L. Doyle, San Francisco, CA
Mr. & Mrs. Terry Epstein, Arvada, CO
Mr. & Mrs. Tom Hammer, Sacramento, CA
Mr. Paul Hill, San Francisco, CA
Ms. Annette Macdonald, New York, NY
Mr. & Mrs. William Macdonald, Glencoe, IL
Mr. Peter McAliney, New York, NY
Mrs. Stephanie Mendel, Belvedere, CA
Mr. & Mrs. James Morris, San Anselmo, CA
Mr. & Mrs. Jim Moyer, Germantown, MD
Mr. & Mrs. Michael Owens, Mill Valley, CA
Ms. Shirley Pan, Oakland, CA
Ms. Karen Peterson, Berkeley, CA
Mr. & Mrs. Matthew Robbins, San Francisco, CA
Mr. R. Shaye, Los Angeles, CA
Ms. Sharon Slanovec, Cupertino, CA
Dr. Nayere Zaeri, Philadelphia, PA

Awards

Publications
2005 American Art Collector, Book 6 (to be published Spring 2005)
2004 American Art Collector, Book 1
2003 New American Paintings, Issue 43

Associations
Member-At-Large, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences,
Los Angeles, CA
Artist Member, Berkeley Art Center Association, Berkeley, CA