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I
have painted in oil since childhood. Even so, I have always found it
difficult to talk about my art. Perhaps it is because making art is so
much a part of me. It is not something I talk about, it is something I
do. When I am not working, I feel anxious and unhealthy.
The source of my inspiration has always been and continues to be the
natural world, its light and its color. The image I have always been
especially inspired by has been the tree. From childhood on, I have
had an ever deepening affinity for trees. As with my intense sense of
the tree in Sartre's "Nausea", the physicality of trees is extremely
palpable to me and I am at once excited and quieted by their
human-like and, at times, animal-like presence. They also have a
certain spirituality that resonates within me. Recently, I have begun
to focus on creating a sense of time and place, trying to (re)capture
moments I have experienced in the past, as well as in the present.
Although these memories involve many images, the image of the tree, in
a variety of forms, continues to be in much of my work.
In addition to being a painter, I am also a printmaker and an art
educator. For many years I had the joyful experience of teaching art
in the Islip Public Schools in Islip, NY and also, as a professor of
art education at Dowling College in Oakdale, NY. I grew up in
Philadelphia, PA and I am a long time resident of Sayville, NY.
I studied at The Philadelphia Museum School of Art (which has become
The Philadelphia University of the Arts) and The Cleveland Institute
of Art. I received my Bachelor of Arts from Hofstra University and my
Masters of Arts in Liberal Studies from SUNY at Stony Brook. I have
studied in Europe and have attended Master Classes at LI University,
Southampton Campus. I exhibit nationally and internationally. My work
is included in numerous private and public collections.
Author and art critic, Helen A.Harrison has called my painting "exhuberant"
and "alive with color and movement." Artist and art critic, Eric
Ernst, has written about my "creative use of color" and the
expressiveness and "elegant coloration" of my prints. |