As a mid-career artist, I have decided to pursue abstraction as my preferred method of visual communication. For close to twenty-five years I have drawn upon my education and professional background in architecture for inspiration when composing a painting; intuition is primary—then media, proportions, colors, textures, and careful execution determine the final result. I make art that is purely optical—that is, an art meant to engage the eye and the mind of the viewer without employing any associations outside of the work itself; the viewer is introduced to abstraction arrived at only by the paint on the canvas. My work is purely retinal, that is, it is a rejection/renunciation of narrative, extraneous arcane meanings, or contrived connections.

I embrace special interests in art history, architectural history, design theory, composition, and critique. I draw inspiration from early modernism, especially from the abstract expressionist work produced during the mid-twentieth century. My work continues to be subconsciously influenced by the compositional subtleties inherent in the work of the Cubist, Constructivist, and Bauhaus movements. Abstract Expressionism, particularly the work of Motherwell, Frankenthaler, Hoffman, and Hartigan, does indeed enter into my oeuvre; the architectural masterpieces produced by Mies van der Rohe, Graham, and Wright also play a part.

Architectural composition and the discipline of hand-drawing were not confined only to the classroom, but were practiced professionally. My drawing skills include the ability to construct axonometric and isometric views, one, two and three-point perspectives, worm’s-eye and bird’s-eye views, and of course building plans, sections, and elevations. Graphite, charcoals, inks, and colored pencils were employed by me to great precision.

As an artistic foil, as a creative release from that precisionist work, I have devoted myself to an expressive type of abstraction, to an artistic mode devoid of the rules of perspective drawing, to codes and to gravity. What remains is an art of underlying structure, seductive color, and a loose brush. I employ my art as a sort of personal liberation from the demands of architectural drawing, and yet, I never completely lose the disciplines that I have been taught.

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Bachelor of Arts, 1989

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Master of Architecture, 1992