Standing Tall, the Splendor of the Joshua Tree (2014)
In my first year of college I mostly drew. I just
wanted to learn about the colors of the pencil, so to
speak. I loved black, white and the shades of grey. I
also tried photography, graphic design, jewelry, and
printmaking. In my second and third years, I mostly
made art on my own as I was working full time. (I
had founded and directed a not-for-profit corporation,
‘Art to People, Inc’ which set up art-based programs
in social service organizations: halfway houses, jails,
alternative schools, mental health facilities). Being
the unique school that it was, class attendance was not
mandatory and I never needed much sleep. Portfolio
presentation twice a year determined the awarding of
credits. During this second year, I did some almost
photographically real drawings but with a design edge
to them, and was invited by the Boston Atheneum to
have a solo show. From that show I was invited by
Ellen Sragow in NYC to join her gallery. But, within
a couple of months after the show, I moved to spray
paints and pastels doing non-objective work. Ellen‟s
interest continued and she took these new pieces,
finding homes for them in mostly corporate, although
some private, collections. Gross McCleaf in
Philadelphia also carried my work
I continued working outside of school and then
applied for and got into the fifth year program at the
Museum School. I continued the work I was selling
in NYC, but adding fabric to the mix. I created large
paintings, primarily staining the canvases and then
affixing satin fabric overlays (windows) that had been
sprayed with various subtle colors. The beauty of
satin is that as you walked by the piece, the light
reflecting on the shiny fabric changes – loosely in
keeping with the color field and non-objective works
of the New York art scene. I received a traveling
fellowship from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts
and went for six weeks to a small fishing island
(Henningsvaer) in northern Norway (the land of the
midnight sun) to teach myself how to paint and about