Meet the Artist

Why do you make the art that you make?
Why does a bird sing? It’s a compulsion, a love letter, a declaration of undiminished joy. I paint because I am trying to capture the numinous — something from the natural world that gives rise to spiritual feelings of joy, wonder, awe or fragility. It’s not really possible to pin down that feeling, that sense of divinity. You can’t capture it the way you’d pin a butterfly in a collection box, but that doesn’t keep me from trying.

What inspires your work the most?
When I feel a spark of joy, fragile and fleeting joy. I have been painting alpine wildlife and Western ranch life because they speak to me of growing up in Colorado, and they also occasion incipient loss. Because all these things I love are threatened by development and climate change.

How has your work evolved in recent years?
Even though my work is realistic – and I doubt that anyone who’s sober would describe my style as “loose” – I am more and more painting not the thing I see, but what I felt. Last year, in a workshop with internationally esteemed painter Stephen Quiller, he said that his attention will be caught by something he sees out of the corner of his eye. But when he turns full-on to look at it, that color or composition isn’t there. The important thing, he teaches, is to “paint the thing you thought you saw.” More and more, I am doing that. I’m also taking different things I see and incorporating them into one scene.

What is your personal and/or artistic background?
I have always painted, since before kindergarten, and I have a structured artistic background. I earned a master’s degree in design – which included lots of figure drawing, studio work and mechanical drawing. Then I topped that off with about three-quarters of another degree in interior design, which included much more sketching, color theory, perspective, multi-media, computer design and shop work. I also have a minor in fine art. I have most enjoyed the classes I have taken with Tammie Lane (from Aspen) and from Stephen Quiller, because these two enable me to take advantage of all that skill and technique while being relatively liberated from it.

What are your thoughts on being an artist in today’s world?
To be an artist today, you really need to under the spell of divine foolishness! Unless you want to be a “commercial artist” (been there, done that), you’re not going to make a living at it. You’re probably not even going to break even. So you really need to derive some other, very powerful elixir of satisfaction from it, whether that’s in the form of art for art’s sake, social approbation, social commentary or using the work as a meditation or spiritual practice. There’s not much other explanation for why anyone in their right mind would do it.

What are your hopes for the future?
For a variety of reasons, I’m in life’s “end zone”. The art I’m making now is intended to be my legacy. I’m harvesting the fruits of the things I have loved and wanted to share. I have begun gifting paintings to nonprofits and public buildings as a way to memorialize what I loved best about my life, and as a way to be remembered. I hope that all my large and best works will survive me to bring joy into the lives of others.