WORDS FROM THE ARTIST
I am emerging into the art world like a butterfly coming out of its cocoon. Nature guides the new butterfly into the unknown world with little or no expectation of rewards but it journeys on to enrich other lives wherever it lands. This journey for me has been an eye opener. I have come to realize emergence is a process and not an event. It started in 1988.
My painting style is realistic and is painted in the style of the Old Dutch Masters, with dark under painting, followed by layers of paint. I begin each canvas with heavy washes of dark colors, and slowly bring the figures forward out of that darkness. As the individuality of each portrait establishes itself, the mood, the background colors and the details fall into place I use pastel chalks in this same manner. Many of my paintings have been portraits of American Indians, Indian faces, ceremonial gatherings and scenes of the everyday life on a reservation. This intrigues me as much as any other subject I have painter. Not all American Indians live on reservations, however, the ones that do will tell you their way of life is not like it used to be. With that in mind if it isn’t already too late, I believe that now is the time to start recording these native peoples’ art, artifacts and their stories so they can be preserved for the future generations to see for themselves what their ancestors may have looked like. I want to reach into other levels of the art world and explore opportunities that I may have rejected in the past. This means that I want to study my subject matter more in-depth in terms of humanity, not just the subject’s appearance. That journey is still ahead of me.