Artist’s Statement

When I grow up, I want to be Marsden Hartley. Who can resist his big gorgeous shapes reduced to their essence? For a while I thought Milton Avery. He’s still a contender. On a dark day I would consider a fling with Edouard Munch. So satisfyingly bleak, each stroke expressive and textured. Gabrielle Munter, too, a strong painter who loves color – she teaches me. And Alice Neel, who painted her friends and neighbors in Spanish Harlem while Abstract Expressionists ruled the downtown Manhattan art scene.

And let’s not forget those current artists under our respective noses, Paul Emory and Nora Daniels whose work makes my heart beat a little faster. From Zanesville, Ohio, no less. Emory paints from his imagination, bringing scenes to life with vibrant colors and unexpected juxtapositions. There is a large baby, face down, floating on the ceiling; or the movie Drive-in with a huge screen, cars respectfully lined up to watch. Every color and surface interesting. Daniels has made a copper bottomed saucepan into a masterpiece. Her classical training overlaid with her expressive style brings an old farmhouse into another dimension. She paints every day and turns out relentlessly beautiful work.

With all these artists it is their elegant shapes with gorgeous surfaces that I aspire to.

For the present, I am simply painting whatever touches me in some way: An interesting moment (Change is Coming, Picnic, Naptime at the BPL); shapes that resonate (Boston Common 9th Floor, City Garden With A View, From The Porch); a moment with emotional resonance (The View From Here, Uneasy Rest (archives), Loss (archives). I am fascinated, too, looking through from one plane to another, from inside to outside, from this place to that place (Let The Chores Begin, Farm Kitchen, Arizona Mountain, 43 Bus, Ohio Village.)

The more I paint, the more I learn and the more interesting I find my work becomes. I hope I get to paint long enough to break through to new discoveries. Come to think of it, it is all new discoveries, every stroke of the brush.