From the beginnings of my collegiate architectural education in 1964, to the present day, mark-making has been at the core of my work. In 1976, while on Fellowship at the Fine Arts Work Center, I began drawing, photographing and creating site-specific sculpture in the woods, bogs and beaches in the Provincelands National Seashore. In 1984 I received a Fulbright Fellowship to Nigeria where I studied traditional Yoruban carving while producing abstract paintings and drawings, overtly influenced by African iconography. It is during this time in Africa that painting became the central focus of my artistic engagement.

In the mid 90’s I began incorporating the figure in order to extend the emotional range of my image making. Over time I have extracted additional images from the Provincelands environment - the water, sun, birds, and other elements of the landscape - and reconstituted them with this new figurative language, as well as from my previous abstract work.

For the past five years I have traveled to Italy and had the opportunity to experience first-hand, Medieval and Renaissance architecture, painting and sculpture, which has had a profound effect on my work. An entire new language of color, surface and form has emanated from this immersive journey.

In May of 2018, after retiring from academia, I was awarded a six-week Visual Artists Residency Fellowship to Civitella Ranieri in Umbria, Italy. The opportunity to live, work and study in the environment that has greatly enriched my work, intensified my focus and I continue to synthesize my previous investigations with this fresh experience.

Years of mark-making in a variety of mediums, across multiple disciplines, that include drawing and printmaking, have honed my skills and given me faith in the ability to allow engaged play, chance and accident to have a major role in my work. I continue to let the process of making, with the liquid materials of gouache, ink, watercolor and paint, fuel my curiosity and guide my search.