I’m a thrill seeker
I revel in being scared, for me painting is like jumping off metaphorical cliffs. Painting fulfills my need to be at the edge of whatever I feel I am at the edge of at any given time.
I have been painting for as long as I can remember. At five years old, I covered myself in Kelly green paint in kindergarten, intoxicated by its sensuous energy. Even then, I wasn’t interested in describing the world around me. I wanted to express in paint what was happening inside. That instinct has never left.
I am entirely self-taught and that independence defines my work. My education has come through persistence, intuition and relentless curiosity. I learned through experimentation—working, failing, adjusting and trusting my own eye. I uncovered my method and voice through lived experience. Every painting carries that personal honesty.
Ultimately, my paintings are emotional landscapes.
Growing up in Southern California, museum visits and travel through America and Europe shaped my visual awareness early on. Even during a demanding legal career, creativity never disappeared—it simply waited. In my mid-forties, paint returned to my hand, and choosing life as a painter became less a decision than a return to my true self.
Sante Fe transformed my work. The desert’s light, silence and vastness stripped away distraction and grounded my voice. Here, painting deepened into necessity.
I work in abstraction because emotion rarely arrives in recognizable form. I build, scrape, layer, conceal, and uncover. During personal upheaval, color receded into blacks, whites, creams, and earth tones, creating quieter paintings that map an internal landscape where agitation meets calm.
More recently, I’ve embraced collage, incorporating fragments of my own past paintings alongside found materials. Disassembling and rebuilding feels both meditative and defiant — an act of reinvention.
Ultimately, my paintings are emotional landscapes. They don’t describe an external world; they reveal an internal one. My work reflects where I stand in life at any given moment. I have always carved my own path—fiercely and independently. I paint most days, still chasing that original spark — the thrill of standing at the edge and stepping forward anyway.