The names of our three dogs (in chronological order) tell the story. Krypton, both home planet of Superman and a rare inert gas, Fluffy, sweet as a child’s stuffie but a lot more stubborn, and Juno, goddess, protector and warrior, or in her case, hunter.

Maybe that metaphor doesn’t hold. Nonetheless, my work looks at our planet, bypasses the periodic table of elements (for now), is perhaps more stubborn than cuddly (though that depends), feels love for this world of people, but also anger, sniffs about the intersection of culture and ecology, and looks for the spirit inherent in living things.

All this while pushing around negative and positive space to determine which is ascendent, while layering color to make more color. There are metaphors in everything: how perception is affected by memory, how seeing is shaped by feeling, feeling somehow becomes thinking, comprehension constrained by belief. So much is trapped within language (though color is it’s own language), but painting thankfully happens outside of that framework.

For me, art is an essential form of communication. I draw daily, and paint with both oils and Flashe, sometimes acrylic. Working on gessoed paper allows me to readily overlay, draw and rework, allowing whatever appears to lead the conversation.