What I strive for is emotional experience formed into visual presence. When I was a figurative painter, my concern was figuring out vision—what was it that I was really seeing, prior to naming or recognizing objects—without prejudgement. What was flowing into my sight from moment to moment was light and dark, color and form, as far as my vision could spread. And I found that conditions of perception changed with each passing moment. I had to let go and change what I was drawing or painting completely in an effort to keep up with the flow of experience. Spontaneity drives my creative process. So, in my abstract painting I allow emotion to express itself in such a direct way that deliberation cannot interfere.
Biography
I have been a working artist for over 50 years, and I am still a beginner. Over that time my work has spanned abstract, figurative, landscape and still life. My process is search, emotion, struggle and passion. I studied with the painters Steve Pace, Adolf Gottlieb, Jim Sullivan, Alan Cote, Jean DeTheux and George McNeil.
My father was a pivotal member of the Zen Studies Society in NYC, and during my time at the NY Studio School, I began practicing zazen (zen meditation) at NY Zendo under Eido Shimano Roshi. Painting is zen practice as well.
I met my wife, Barbara, while working in grassroots politics in Hoboken, NJ in the late 1980s. We moved to the Hudson Valley where our family continues to live and work.
Education
Bard College, 1973 BA in Painting
New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture 1978-9
Solo Exhibits
Woodstock Artist’s Association Gallery
R & F Gallery, Kingston NY
Coffey Gallery, Kingston, NY
Stone Ridge Library, Stone Ridge, NY
Primrose Gallery, Rhinebeck, NY
Group Exhibits
Best of the Mid-Hudson Valley, SUNY Ulster, 2024
ArtWalk Kingston 2022, 2023
Woodstock Artist’s Association Gallery
Beat N Path Gallery, Hoboken, NJ
Glass Gallery, NYC
