Artist Statement

“This is our common birthright. The landscape remains the fountainhead of abstraction and symbol making. It endures as the inescapable source of ultimate meaning for our collective humanity.”

David Cleveland, "A History of American Tonalism."

“Small Wonders: Intimate Landscapes in Pastel” is a series of diminutive works exploring the landscape through texture and color using a combination of various media including pastels, monotypes watercolor and linoprints.

Within the series are several smaller series that offer variations on a theme or process. In many of these works, the combination of pastel with other media adds a depth and tonal variation which could not otherwise be attained.

The small size of each piece creates an intimacy which draws the eye and allows the viewer to immediately experience the landscape in its totality.

The landscapes in this series were mostly inspired by the rivers, fields and wooded hills surrounding my homestead in upstate New York. They also draw from memories of Southwestern vistas on the high deserts of Utah and Arizona.

Regardless of the terrain or media used, the subject of these landscapes remains the horizon and the conversation between earth and sky on which we are forever eavesdropping.

Artist Bio

My work as a visual artist has primarily expressed itself in my relationship to Nature and the land on which I live. Witnessing the land in all its seasons and its many moods supplies much of the inspiration for my landscape paintings and photographs.

It's important for my landscapes to express not only my emotional connection to the land but to hopefully instill in others the peace and serenity that I experience in Nature–and now more than ever– the urgent necessity for active stewardship of our land and water.

A self-taught painter, I've been mostly influenced by the Tonalist artists of the late 19th century. Like those early painters, I try to emphasize mood and atmosphere in my landscapes, leaving room for the viewer to complete the narrative.

While my photographs are almost exclusively made on or within just a few miles of my homestead, my paintings are more often composites of scenes I've observed, or in many cases, landscapes I would simply like to wander through.

In addition to landscape painting and photography, I have begun to explore documentary photography as a way to address current issues. I am particularly interested in the "power of the portrait" as a way to call attention to marginalized populations and to combat the growing voices of division and exclusion.

Recent Awards and Exhibitions

• Summer 2023, Awarded an Individual Artist Grant, Statewide Community Regrants Program, New York State Council on the Arts.
•Fall 2023, Face to Face: Portraits from the Precipice, Chenango Arts Council, Norwich, NY; Solo Exhibit.
•Summer 2023, Face to Face: Portraits from the Precipice, New Berlin Library, New Berlin, NY; Solo Exhibit.
•Spring/Summer 2023, Face to Face: Portraits from the Precipice, Earlville Opera House, Earlville, NY; Solo Exhibit.
•Summer/Fall 2022, Living in Limbo: Portraits from the Border, Earlville Opera House, Earlville, NY; Solo Exhibit.
•Spring 2022, Living in Limbo: Portraits from the Border, SUNY Morrisville; Solo Exhibit.
•Fall 2021, Living in Limbo: Portraits from the Border, ArtRage Gallery, Syracuse, NY; Solo Exhibit.
•Summer 2021, Cooperstown Art Association's National Juried Show; Awarded Juror's Citation.
•Summer 2021, State of the Art Gallery, Ithaca, NY. National Photography Juried Show
•Winter 2021, Living in Limbo: Portraits from the Border, Hamilton Center for the Arts, Hamilton, NY; Solo Exhibit
•Winter 2020, State of the Art Gallery, Ithaca, NY. National Juried Show. Awarded Third Place.
•Fall 2020, Living in Limbo: Portraits from the Border, Chenango Arts Council, Norwich, NY; Solo Exhibit
•Fall 2019, Three Rivers, One Land, Broad Street Gallery, Hamilton, NY, Solo Exhibit
•Summer 2019, Photography Exhibit, Close to Home, Chenango Arts Council, Norwich, NY, Solo Exhibit
•Summer 2019, Cooperstown Art Association's National Juried Show.
•Spring 2019, Photography Exhibit, Close to Home, Huntington Public Library
•Winter 2019, Photography Exhibit, Close to Home, Hamilton Public Library
•Winter 2019, 12 x 12 Group Show, Broad Street Gallery, Hamilton, NY
•Summer 2018, Photography Exhibit, Close to Home, Sherburne Public Library
•Summer 2018, Photography Exhibit, Close to Home, New Berlin Public Library
•Fall 2017, In the Twilight Gloaming, Hamilton Arts Center, Solo Exhibit.
•Summer 2017, Arkell Museum & Library at Canajoharie, NY., Solo Exhibit
•Spring 2017, Earlville Opera House Galleries, Solo Exhibit.
•Winter 2016, Arkell Museum & Library at Canajoharie, NY. Annual Juried Exhibit; Awarded Best in Show.