Like nature, particularly water, emotion is mutable.  The most important element I work with is emotion. Emotion drives my vision.  Suspending a breaking wave on paper is like trying to define happiness or grief. Each piece has a story and an overriding emotion within it that develops gradually and organically. They reveal themselves through layers of thoughtful crafting to be tornadoes, ocean swells, earthquake explosions and light pillars.  Maybe it’s about our perceptions of control, or lack thereof, that fascinates me. I only know that I better understand the world as a planet, and my relationship to it, when I’m in the studio.

I work almost exclusively on cotton rag paper using a variety of media.  Each piece begins with scribed elements on blank paper. These lines become the geometry and compositional framework that initially define each piece. Next comes the underpainting of colored washes. I create these washes with brushes laden with various inks and dyes. The washes saturate the paper, flowing through the incised lines in tiny rivulets, enhancing them, and marrying the framework to the underpainting. Pastels, charcoal, razors and graphite are used to create the top layers of imagery, defining the final subject.