Artist Statement

In college I studied media arts and ecology. I worked much of my early adult life outside of the arts and raised a family but have always produced art in some form even as a child.  Over the years I have worked in several media, notably photography, video, printmaking, acrylics, and digital painting. I have also written poetry. There is an interplay within these media as one affects perspective of another. They all have a bearing in some way to what I do currently.

My recent work is primarily made digitally through painting and sometimes integrating photo images. It started with an experiment in making a cartoon. It was meant to be just one little panel but as can happen a character and theme emerged, distinctly, and it became a multi year project. Eventually my true artist self took over and I began the exploration of digital painting as a "fine art" form. It is compelling and I often am too absorbed to blink, swallow or even change the music. It's also very clean and there are no fumes.

There is context to my work. I have made attempts to become void of it and plunge into purely abstract shapes, forms, colors etc. but that doesn't happen. There are concepts lurking within that seep out of my core .

Notably I have a fascination with the great comforts and pleasure created in the human world in contrast to the immense cost which it poses on the natural world. The theme is obscure in earlier print series. Towers appear as sculptures almost detached from what they do (connect our minds and voices to the world almost as gods). City light patterns appear organism like in another series. Eventually animals emerged in my work first appearing as overlays to the city lights and recently as subjects engaging the viewer as if to appeal for help. In this way they become a narrative form as it seems we are reaching a more desperate time with respect to ecosystems and our own adaptation as humans.

Another significant theme within some of my work emerged from the early loss of my parents as an adolescent. It strengthened the sense of mystery about this world and instilled a lifelong exploration. It is present in a recent series "Diaphanous Strata".

My work is stylistically driven by themes and can differ between series. I am focused on the fine art aspect of my production although I occasionally slip to the other side as in making a cartoon.

The cartoon “Drifting Into Old Age” can be seen at: boldsagelane.com