It was on cold winter nights in Michigan where I was born that I became an artist, on the drafty linoleum floor of a 100 year old house, heated by fuel oil, watching my mother draw Christmas cards with pastels on fine toothy papers. An incandescent light bulb lit her walnut desk. I would strain to see what images she developed: Santas with beautiful white beards and red suits, evergreens with rich dark viridian greens, and blue shadows on new  snow!  I was breathless, not only because of the color, but because I was required not to breath when I drew close to her powdery work; my exhaling would inadvertently blow the powdered pigments across the page, ruining the image.  I longed for permission to use those colors, but they were to be forbidden for many years.  Instead, I was doomed to Crayola crayons, those seductive waxy rods of many colors less tempting and critically disappointing when used on plain white paper, which was usually the cardboard from mother's new nylon stockings. Their hard, smooth surfaces paled with the crispy textures, of the sheets Mother used, the abrading power of which pulled the pigment off the stick onto the paper’s fiber surface. That was the birth of my artistic sensibility.

Life developed, extended, molded this artistic sensibility within me.  Family, the births and deaths of people I love, the of my spouse, who is also an artist, travel, school and certain blessed teachers, the Vietnam war, the turmoil of the 60s, world travel and my love of teaching and hate of academic bureaucracy all challenged my ideals and assumptions and forced  discipline in my drive to continue making art.   My life, my spiritual journey and my art has been torn between astounding beauty and meaning and a violent culture of cold aggression and corruption. My work covers the gamut.  I do not bury my head in the sand. For this reason, my work is eclectic, for some inconsistent or unfocused.  What one can find, I hope,  is a "handwriting", a "carrier wave", an "energy" that ties my work as a coherent body of work and speaks with authenticity about our common experience as human beings.