Statement

The following excerpts were derived from two interviews with the artist for newspaper pieces, one in 1987 and another in 1990

The subject of my paintings may be derived from my imagination or from my immediate environment. Like the two poplar trees next to my home. Or the beautiful white eggplants on my kitchen table.

I love to paint still lifes of fruit and flowers or of ordinary objects. I do feel that my work is decorative but I don’t think that is a dirty word. People tell me that those are banal subjects, not the kind of thing we should work on in our time. I have no profound idea about what my work is going to say; I just want people to live with it and to be comforted by it. My work has no political intention. It’s not that I don’t have opinions about political issues. I merely want to make a painting that is good. To try to find some deep meaning in my work would be dishonest.

I’ve experimented with different styles. I work quickly with a crude understanding of what I’m looking at. I believe that my style is becoming more cohesive. It is a style that I recognize as my own. You may think of it as expressionistic, outlined, bold, colorful, with the intention to express feelings on a raw level. I like to use brilliant primary colors. Typically, my paintings have big areas of paint with very little color mixing.