M y b a c k g r o u n d
Largely self-taught in the disciplines of drawing, printmaking, collage, book making, and painting, I have made art all of my life, even during my career in ESL (English as a Second Language) teaching and editing. I have exhibited my work in Arizona, California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Montana, New York, Oregon, and Washington. In 2016, I presented my first solo exhibition of Field Notes, at the Missoula Art Museum, and in September 2017, Field Notes was shown at the Whitney Center for the Arts at Sheridan College in Sheridan, Wyoming. In Summer 2009, I was one of the artists chosen for the Inaugural Montana Triennial, and my work has been in numerous annual auctions at the Missoula Art Museum. I have been awarded artist residencies at both Jentel and Brush Creek in Wyoming, and my art work has been included in various poetry publications and poetry websites. I've traveled extensively outside the U.S. and have lived in five states. After several decades away, I have returned to my home state of California and am art making at the Norton Factory Studios in Oakland.
H o w I m a k e m y a r t
I work to interpret, edit, and illustrate that which arouses my sensitivities. The content is both physical - nature, people, inanimate objects - and metaphysical - the primordial, the spirit, the rationale, the intent, and our languages. The content derives from curiosity, fantasy, knowledge, communication, literature, poetry, or music.
To interpret, I examine the background and details of content. Where has something come from? What is it composed of? How does it exist? What does it want to tell me? The results of this examination are the parts of the content I would like to share. I then edit my interpretation in order to illustrate it.
The choice of and interplay among materials, textures, shapes, colors, and markings help me to edit, which I define as transferring an interpretation into a visual sense. Perhaps I have taken notes on a conversation between two people. I then extract the metaphysical components of this conversation and what I consider to be its essence. So I have done my first type of edit. At this point, I consider turning this essence into a tangible form. Thus, my second type of edit is to determine the most appropriate media to produce the form I have envisioned.
Because I desire to share a myriad of interpretations, I am inspired and excited by playing with media and searching for new ways to illustrate. As interpretations are innumerable and varied, so too should their visual forms be. This is the fundamental impetus that drives me as an artist. And there are no "mistakes;" there are discoveries, which may not match a form I've envisioned, but which greatly reward my artistic process.
I tend to produce careful, intricate, and evocative illustrations of my content. Yet these illustrations are merely fragments - the bits and pieces of my experience and insight; they do not provide clear-cut definitions. As soon as an illustration is realized, when the sublime is evident, my work, my expression, is complete and ready to share. I have seen, however, that an illustration can take on a novel interpretation, provoked by a viewer’s own imagination or memory. Art is, after all, not only an abstract revelation of its creator; it is also a conduit for a viewer's self-reflection and expression and an interaction between its creator and all others. I continue to work from this premise.
A w a r d s
2015 June - Blue-Ribbon Winner - 'Scapes / Land-Sea-Mind - Radius Gallery - Missoula, Montana
2014 April - Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts Residency - Saratoga, Wyoming
2011 April - May - Jentel Artist Residency - Banner, Wyoming
C o l l e c t i o n s
2018 Two accordion books purchased by the Special Collections of Smith College Libraries - Northampton, Massachusetts
E d u c a t i o n
1996 MA degree in TESOL – Columbia University – New York, New York
1993 MA degree in East Asian Studies – Columbia University – New York, New York
1989 BA degree in Art History – Manhattanville College – Purchase, New York
P u b l i c a t i o n s
2016 Missoulian - Entertainer Section - June 2, 2016
2015 Evening Will Come, issue 56, in thevolta.org
2012 High Desert Journal - Vol. 15 - May 2012
2011 Missoulian - Entertainer Section - March 2011
2009 Montana Triennial Exhibition Catalogue - Missoula Art Museum
2009 Missoulian - Entertainer Section - “Torn Apart” - June 12, 2009