For many years I have worked as an artist. And even now I am not sure if the subject of one’s art is chosen or it chooses you. This is true with many of my artist friends. You begin by showing up and doing the work. And one day, years later and looking back, the process of making reveals an inter-connectedness that seems to have been present from the beginning. The great advantage of being an older artist is that much of the trappings of being a young artist have fallen away. There is nothing to prove. What is present now is a simple acceptance of process and art making. And with that acceptance comes clarity of purpose.

            Over the years my work has evolved from object based surrealistic still life photographs to the abstract images that I make today. But the core of my work has always dealt with the same theme. I believe that art should not have to be explained. I believe that something vital is lost if a work is translated into words that justify its existence. I believe that images lose their potency if thought overwhelms experience. My images have always been about with what is beyond physical recognition. I use the photographic medium not to show what can be seen. Rather, I connect to what can be sensed at the very core of our “human” being – a deep-seated innate need to experience overwhelming beauty.

             Octavio Paz once wrote, in a poem dedicated to the art of Joseph Cornell, that in his elegant constructions “things run away from their names.” The humble nature of the objects and surfaces that I photograph aspire to the same ambition. I do not see my subjects for what they are but what they can become. In my work creation comes from destruction. The essence of abstraction is to create a world in constant flux that plumbs the depths of transformation. The great quality of human experience happens deep in a place where language does not exist. I believe in the power of art to take us to the edge where that which is beautiful is fleeting and cannot be possessed. It is there that the source of our true humanity feels most alive and brings us closer to knowing our true selves.