I love everyday objects, and things that show their age. So I often paint old bottles
and tools, flowers and fruit. My painting is an affirmation of the importance of looking,
of perceiving, of drawing, of composing and finding a balance between visual drama
and stability. Being in love with oil paint as a material, I tend to obsess over all
the technical matters that make oil paintings interesting: edges; suggestions of
planes,forms, and spaces; tones; impasto; and the emotion inherent in chiaroscuro
and color. But mainly I paint because I have to. I tried not painting for a long while;
it left a hole that nothing else really filled. 

A word on the frames: many of the newer paintings are mounted in -- and were composed
to fit -- molded frames that were designed by Robert Kulicke (a wonderful painter in his own right, in addition to being a world-class frame maker). They were inspired by beautiful frames from art history -- starting in ancient Egypt and working forward through centuries of European frames. Composing paintings to fit these shapes posed a series of interesting challenges,
but the end result was worth it, and it's great to honor Kulicke's memory in this way.