I live near a small, farming, college town in eastern Washington State, USA. and love being part of the long history of making art and music. People have been sharing their lives through painting and music for a very long time and as 21st century artists, we are directly a part of that lineage. When I stand in front of a painting I see the surface image as well as the actual brush strokes put there by the painter.
I am currently finishing up a instrumental album of 13 great tracks, while still continuing with watercolors.
I’ve been told to narrow down my focus to one type of art, never being able to pull it off I finally embrace the joy of working with all the amazing materials and mediums we have. These past few years have been a time of getting back to basics, relearning my materials and reawakening the original reasons I began painting and playing over 50 years ago.
These visual works are quite varied. Each series happens in the months after an exploratory period where I experiment with materials and images then when everything comes together a series of pieces will happen. As an example, this last summer I really enjoyed getting up in the morning and heading out painting "en plein air" in watercolors or oils. This led to a nice series of full size watercolor landscapes.
Much of making art has to do with the craft needed to work with “real” materials like water, oils, ink and earth as well as the amazing digital tools we have. After the skills, tools and techniques of the craft are embodied then we hope some art will show up. A painting refracts and reflects light, it has a physical presence in a room and each painting is, by it’s very handmade nature, a unique, one of a kind object that has time built into it.
