I find the process of making art, the cycle of observation and creation utterly compelling. But I’m rarely interested in literal depictions of the world around me. In recent years I've become particularly fascinated by the question of how to interpret the physical characteristics of my immediate environment.
In 2016 I left New York City to return to our family home in Southern California to take care of my aging father. The right-angles and verticality of Manhattan’s landscape, which figured prominently in my paintings up to that point, were soon replaced by the patterns of sedimentary stone that I discovered while exploring the nearby San Gabriel Mountains. The discrete yet complex nature of the cross-sectional strips of minerals; one layered upon the next over the course of centuries resonated with me. The patterns were beautiful, and this geology somehow provided a visual metaphor for the concept of home that I had been contemplating upon returning to California. The works on canvas, part of my Geology of Home series are an intuitive exploration of color and form in an attempt to create a metaphor that represents the layered complexities and uncertainties of returning to a place where I once lived at a different time in life. Notions of love, family, community, memory and loss all play a part here.
While similar in nature, my watercolors differ in their spontaneity. Unlike canvases which are painted in my studio, the watercolors were created in a variety of geographic locations. I carry paint and paper with me when I travel and sometimes the local architecture, weather, light and landscape are reflected in these pieces.
You may find it interesting that I did not attend art school. Instead I hold a Doctorate in Policy Analysis from the RAND Pardee Graduate School. My academic training served me well as I have gone on to teach courses in studio art, art history and fashion history at the College of Mount St. Vincent and Manhattan College in Riverdale, NY.