I started painting about 25 years ago, after a long career in design and tech. Design was about solving problems, about the future, and I was growing wary of its ways and means. I wanted to make problems. Painting gave me a place to do that, now. I did so for a few years before turning my attention to other things.
I returned to painting during the COVID pandemic. I started writing poems then, too. I felt called to those modes (and they to me, seemingly) in response to the devastation, grief, and uncertainty. It still feels that way.
I work small with traditional media: acrylic and oil paint, charcoal, pastels, ink, collage, pencil, almost always on paper. There is no “subject” per se. I look around and set something in motion on the surface, attending to what emerges. I often feel blind as I work, literally feeling my way through, groping with eyes and gestures. There is effort, ease, beauty. Silence and thrill.
Each painting is an act of faith.