For more than 30 years, my work has been primarily focused on depictions of manicured desert landscapes, painted in a style that I refer to as Whimsical Surrealism. Over time, the genre evolved to include scenes of outer space, the tropics, the Mediterranean, and Catalina Island. These works were quite successful, and I developed a significant collector base for this style. I have always seen my career as a gradual evolution of both style and subject. Over the past 18 months, I have been engaged in an intense exploration of abstract art. Talk about working without a net - nothing I have attempted in the past has been as frightening, and at the same time as exhilarating, as painting abstracts. As an essentially representative painter for most of my career, I have to admit to not having given much thought to artistic expression in an abstract form, nor did I understand the underlying characteristics. But now, after having spent some time in this exploration, I have a much deeper respect and appreciation of this of art form, and the techniques of painting in the abstract style.
During this same recent period of time, I began to work in assemblage, creating sculptural works based on found objects. I am now searching the world around me for rusty metal, weathered wood and other found objects that will become the new artworks that spring from my imagination. Again, trying this new medium out was more than a little daunting, but it has provided me with an even broader means of artistic expression.
The most interesting aspect of this period is that I feel so revitalized as an artist. Of course, there is a certain irony in the fact that I am now working in a style that is in diametric opposition to my much more controlled form of surrealism. However, when I look back on my nearly three decades of creativity, I cannot escape the feeling that everything I have done in the past has inexorably led me to this exact evolutionary position of delving into abstract painting and assemblage sculpture. My work as an artist will continue to be a lifelong exploration of the possible, and I am very excited to find where this new path will take me. I hope you enjoy this little preview.