ART WITH A PURPOSE
Artists have a role to play in identifying the issues that matter. They range from the very personal to the universal. The world has always needed artists who speak to social issues, and never more than now. Social justice is a term widely ridiculed in the current political climate. To me it’s about working toward a level playing field.
I have always wanted art to have a purpose. Ever since my student days, I have been interested in public art and how it influences viewers. I’ve helped found a community arts center, designed and taken part in public arts projects—murals, pop-up galleries, and interdisciplinary guerilla arts events. As an educator, my view of art-making as a design process led me to explore the larger designed world, eventually through a Fulbright to Oxford and later publication of a magazine about designing for teachers.
The artwork I find the most compelling is pictorial, narrative and evocative, while not necessarily literal. The work on this web site is largely figurative. Abstraction, which I often use in my paintings, is background music to the story. Until the last few years, my paintings have been personal—just me reacting to, mostly, the people around me—friends, relatives, performers, models. I work in oils, acrylics, pastels, watercolor, charcoal, and pencil on canvas, paper, board and sometimes, walls.
In recent years, my community has become increasingly diverse. I’ve benefitted from that diversity and my world has grown richer as a result of new perspectives. And in getting to know people different from myself, I have also found myself sharing in their fears and frustrations.
My most recent paintings are about human connections across perceived boundaries. Breaking down the artificial differences between people is the goal behind “Look me in the Eye,” a series of paintings now underway in which individuals confront the viewer visually, emerging from a background of abstract elements drawn from nature, culture and the urban environment.
I am certainly not the only artist interested in “breaching the fourth wall,” but I hope to make a small contribution to this effort.
Artists have a role to play in identifying the issues that matter. They range from the very personal to the universal. The world has always needed artists who speak to social issues, and never more than now. Social justice is a term widely ridiculed in the current political climate. To me it’s about working toward a level playing field.
I have always wanted art to have a purpose. Ever since my student days, I have been interested in public art and how it influences viewers. I’ve helped found a community arts center, designed and taken part in public arts projects—murals, pop-up galleries, and interdisciplinary guerilla arts events. As an educator, my view of art-making as a design process led me to explore the larger designed world, eventually through a Fulbright to Oxford and later publication of a magazine about designing for teachers.
The artwork I find the most compelling is pictorial, narrative and evocative, while not necessarily literal. The work on this web site is largely figurative. Abstraction, which I often use in my paintings, is background music to the story. Until the last few years, my paintings have been personal—just me reacting to, mostly, the people around me—friends, relatives, performers, models. I work in oils, acrylics, pastels, watercolor, charcoal, and pencil on canvas, paper, board and sometimes, walls.
In recent years, my community has become increasingly diverse. I’ve benefitted from that diversity and my world has grown richer as a result of new perspectives. And in getting to know people different from myself, I have also found myself sharing in their fears and frustrations.
My most recent paintings are about human connections across perceived boundaries. Breaking down the artificial differences between people is the goal behind “Look me in the Eye,” a series of paintings now underway in which individuals confront the viewer visually, emerging from a background of abstract elements drawn from nature, culture and the urban environment.
I am certainly not the only artist interested in “breaching the fourth wall,” but I hope to make a small contribution to this effort.
Koresh 1, Acrylics, 22"x60"
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Julie, Oils, 18"x24"
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Witnesses, Stoneware, 12"x10"x8"
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Reflections of Belmar Mural, Exterior latex, 45'x13'
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