ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

I was born in New York City in 1950 and have been a resident of Western Massachusetts for the past thirty-five years. Growing up along "Museum Alley", I began painting at the age of 15 after viewing Vincent Van Gogh's ethereal "Starry Night". In 1998, I came back to painting after a 27-year hiatus. I discovered night flying after getting my pilot's license the previous year. Gazing down at the winter landscapes of my Pioneer Valley after sunset, I found an engaging fairyland world, not unlike what Van Gogh painted a century past. Surprised and encouraged, I began painting this present series of images which reflect the combination of vivid colors, clouds, and sky. Since then, I have exhibited at galleries and art festivals from Maine to Pennsylvania including solo shows in New York City and Boston. Currently, I am being represented by the Art Divas Gallery in Taos, New Mexico which caters to "women artists and a few good men". I find that the ethereal colors of the American Southwest are in keeping with my style and are a constant source of creative inspiration.

ARTIST STATEMENT

"Artists are the Indians of the white world" - John Fire Lame Deer.

I was drawn to this quote the minute I read it in 1980. Lame Deer further explains that artists are the visionaries of our culture, the ones who are able to capture the invisible and make it come alive. Likewise, it is doubly important in these difficult times to keep reminding ourselves of the beauty of heaven and earth, that this beauty is indeed the natural state of our world, not the aberrations of violence and despair. I am a self-taught artist. For subject matter, I view scenes in everyday life or from my memory and bring them back into the studio. My past training as a photographer makes me particularly sensitive to the subtleties of light and composition. Once in the studio, these ideas go in a variety of directions where I am as much following artistic intuition as applying deliberate technique.