“The internal machinery of life, the chemistry of the parts, is something beautiful.  And it turns out that all life in interconnected with all other life.” 
 
—Richard P. Feynman, theoretical physicist
 


“True observers of nature, however they may differ in opinion in other respects, will agree that all which represents itself as appearance, all that we meet with as phenomenon, must either indicate an original division which is capable of union, or an original unity which admits of division. To divide the united, to unite the divided, is the life of nature: this is the eternal systole and diastole, the eternal collapsion and expansion, the inspiration and expiration of the world in which we live and move.”

—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic.
 
 
As an abstract artist the basis of my work has been a dialogue between polygonal “shaped” canvases and the use of “painterliness” in regard to the interaction of color.  I hope to merge movement with stability, transparency with opacity, and labor with play.
 
The hexagon or parts of it, have been the foundation of most of my work throughout my career. The hexagon is inspired by the benzene ring. It is the building block of life, interconnected to all the diversity of life on a fundamental level.


Whether it is the visible phenomenon that bees best demonstrate, or the 60 million year-old, stepped hexagonal basalt formations of the Giants Causeway on the North Coast of Ireland, it is what my art pieces intend to address, communicate, and explore in my visual language.

In my constructs, I use meditative geometry, conjured up spatial play, and expansive color planes. In more recent work, the oil pastel adheres to the gridded surface and gives a randomness to the work, and in my mind, relates to the randomness of events in the lives of individuals, populations, and nature. The oil pastel also creates a visual mix on the painted surface like Seurat used in a different way with Pointillism.

Color, whether painted or overlaid with oil pastels, is explored using  theories of Josef Albers. Lastly, I use color, believing like Seurat, that a painter can use color to create harmony and emotion in art in the same way that a musician uses counterpoint and variation to create harmony in music.

In the Ad infinitum series of 2019-2022, the wooden strip on the outside edge is an extended line to draw attention to the adjacent “negative” wall space. It also infers the continuation of the hexagonal module that can repeat without end. The painted shapes within the pieces are stepped (different thicknesses) creating a more pronounced division. The incised surface pattern, made more visible with oil pastel, unites the individual shapes with the totality of the planes reflecting an interaction of different colors and transparencies.


I live and work in Branford, Connecticut.