My best ideas occur out-of-doors, so the experience of forces controlling the physical world has become a key component to my practice.  Working en plein air or bringing the echoes of nature-induced physical exertions back to the studio fuels mind and soul for the exquisite, arduous, transformative, messy and enlightening act of making art. 

Recent paintings and prints focus on themes of protection and vulnerability, questioning the results of repetitive patterns of behavior, both aggressive and seemingly benign.  Medieval armor and aquatic defense mechanisms assume allegorical significance, as does the juxtaposition of conceptual patterns with realistic forms.  South American reptiles become warriors while lotus and poppy seed pods symbolically offer glimpses of the great issues of our times:  religious difference and the drug trade.  Stylistically, loose vibrant brushstrokes collide with precisely focused intervals of structured color, accentuating the point of contact between distinctly different approaches to the medium.  The graphic work teeters on the verge of abstraction, with a rich variety of textures dancing in and around the forms.