Biography
"While I was always a doodler--- I drew cartoons for my high school paper and was art editor of the yearbook--- it was college art classes that brought me to a love of abstraction. I started in the usual way, painting realistically, then surrealistically; then finally, after being exposed to Mondrian, deKooning. Louis and Pollock, pure abstraction. I learned that abstraction is a very personal thing and that just by putting certain lines together, indications of something realistic would just happen. I now try to use this by getting close to these indications, but not over the edge into identifiable form. I call these “mind options”. I construct my compositions with as many of these “mind options” open in the most line-economical way. I know this is not new, but I am attracted and committed to the straight-forwardness of it. I see myself in line with Malevich and the Constructivists.
As I said, abstraction is personal. It’s my own life experiences that drive the choices I make in my art. I see the rest of my life expanding my vocabulary and refining the elegance. I am trying to make my mind options more universal, to the end that someday enough people will understand and appreciate them. Also, some times because I get one thing just right, I get more things right than I could possibly imagine. My main influences are Rembrandt, for line, Vermeer, for light, and Marden for his reductive elegance. I’m also influenced by all the artists out there who believe enough in themselves to continue what they are doing, regardless of sales or critical acclaim.
I have been a member of the art community here in N.Y.C. for over thirty years " now. To pay my bills I do electrical work. I am divorced and we have two boys in college, such smart parents! "
