Artist's Statement:
It seems that diversity characterizes my art works. I didn't plan it that way but that's what happened. Currently, my favored subject matter is human situations and events such as growing problems (e.g. pubescence, child abuse by clergy), aging (e.g. Alzheimer's, social bureaucracy), hypocrisy and portraits of unusual people in unusual circumstances. There are other artistic excursions into sea life, memories of my New Mexico existence, environmental and earth survival issues, political atrocities (the G. W. Bush administration) and for the last 45+ years, an intellectual fascination with Mayan glyphs and culture.
This diversity probably has something to do with my past. I've lived in many different areas of North America, experienced a variety of good and bad circumstances, worked my way through university as a janitor, short-order cook, roofer, drug store clerk and carpenter, and then managed to move through several academic areas beginning with basic neurochemistry of memory mechanisms and finishing my last 25 years assessing children and adults with brain-behavioral disorders.
I'm not about to spend much time painting flowers, sunsets, old barns, charming houses or quiet forest paths. I want to bring my collected emotional and cognitive experiences to the viewer, to grab eyeballs and intellect! This could be very basic such as playing with colors and forms, as in renditions of Mayan glyphs. But most importantly, I want to create works that tell a story, set a mood, offer a unique perspective, deal with bare socio-political issues or highlight the hypocrisies of society. My goal is to get the viewer more cognitively involved, not to produce paintings that might be appealing because they match wall colors, fit a general décor or look good hanging over the couch.
So be it.
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