Questions and Answers on the Creative Process Provided by the Artist

How do you start a given work?

As my paintings are a reflection, a meditation on my life’s physical, psychological, and spiritual
experiences, there are various phases of creating a work that I experience. There is the initial
stage, facing the blank canvas, which is a threatening and risk-taking ordeal. To get over this
anxiety, I just plunge in with a strong emotion dictated by the recent events in my life, and the
painting begins to define itself. Once started, painting, for me, resembles a trance, which is
occasionally interspersed with frank assesment as to what’s happening on the canvas. Mistakes
do occur, but some artists have created successes out of mistakes, so I try to let my mistakes
have a chance to speak for themselves before/if I decide to put them aside. For example, I
recently read in ARTnews that Robert Rauschenberg won the grand prize at the 1963 Ljubljana
print biennial in the former Yugoslavia for his work “Accident”, which was pulled from a
broken stone with a diagonal crack. The article stated: “Sometimes an unintentional goof results
in surpassingly good art. Innovations in the work of Nam June Paik, Jackie Winsor, and Man
Ray originated in mishaps transformed into new techniques and styles.” Several of the paintings
in my Connections exhibit are “mistakes” that I’ve “worked”.

What are your working methods/techniques?

For me, the painting paints itself, so I cannot know what the end result will be regardless of the
initial idea I may have in my mind. When I use a large easel, I often work on the floor for
greater freedom of movement and expression. I use brushes, palette knives, and paper or cloth
dabbing for special effects. Some of the work consists of pouring oil paints on a canvas and
then channeling them into painterly flowing linear forms that appear to be in constant movement
(Ruis Clos II). Sometimes I “paint out” areas around and within these forms to provide the
illusion of negative space (Ruis Clos II).

In addition, I add non-painterly objects, such as nails, screws, wire, canvas, paper which
provide a tactile effect, giving a three-dimensional connection between the viewer and the
painting (Earth Awakening). I use what is immediately available to me because it is there and
thus is what was meant to be in the painting. Therefore, I often feel as if an object, materials,
etc. are presented to me. Simple shells from the beach were offered to me as gifts from the sea
and they took on a mystical quality when taken out of context and offered up for meditation.
(Shell Inspiration I and Shell Inspiration II).

The time I put in a painting daily varies depending on the mood that I am in; sometimes I work
best in great spurts of energy and can produce an average size painting (36″ x 36″) in a month.
I try to create successive completions, so I can experience satisfaction with each small
completion. This works best for me since I work during the day, and can only spend spurts of
time during the week and weekends.

The final challenge is the process of showing my work. Anxiety sets in during the preparation
for the show, which can be debilitating because I am not free to paint without the imagined
thoughts of what people will say and think. The slightest disapproval from others or self,
increases this anxiety to a heart-retching level. Showing is a perilous business for an artist.
What unique qualities do the materials you use have and how did they effect the outcome
of the finished work?

I like textures of varying weights, layers of color, paint that flows freely or is firmly fixed in
placed such as the strips of canvas or paper. For example, in my painting, “Fragments of
Memory”, I used various textured elements that pierce the two··dimensional space and make it
three dimensional. These sometimes overlapping fragments, some similar in length and width,
others frequently changing in size, evoked various fragments of memory of my life. Like
several paintings, “Illusion and Reality” is opaque in some places, and in other places
translucent.

How did you come up with the theme, connections for your show?

The theme was always present in my paintings – I just labeled it after meditating and
contemplating what the paintings were telling me, and reviewing my life’s experiences. I
affirmed this through discussion with other artists, which provided an outsider’s view of what
they saw was going on in my paintings.

What have you learned about art in general or about yourself as an artist creating it?

Painting is both pleasure and pain, and I cannot know one without the other – they are
connected.