The San Francisco Bay Area has been my home since attending UC Berkeley as an Art and Psychology double major. As a young artist, figure drawing and painting immediately appealed to me, and I have continued to work from the human figure ever since. Both San Franscisco Bay Area cultural life and my travels around the world provide fertile artistic inspiration. Much modern art aims to shock, but my art aims to provide sensual pleasure and psychic balance in our fragmented modern world.

My figure painting always begins with live models.  I love painting from the figure, because of the figure's sensuous forms and the life and energy it brings to the act of painting.  I like to start with an unexpected angle on the pose to challenge the viewer with unusal shapes, and to connect the figure to the edges of the picture space. Whether attracted by color, form, movement, or expression, I begin with media that are swift, bold, and sensual, and work quickly to capture the figure.  For male figures, I like to emphasize the musculature of the human body; with female figures I like to paint abstractions from the sensuous shapes of the body. After the initial drawing, I may go in many directions. I often add abstract and decorative elements inspired by crafts like contemporary quiltmaking, stained glass, mosaic, and weaving. My painting has a frankly decorative intent, using bold color, line, texture, and pattern to animate strong compositions.  A major purpose of art is to provide pleasure.

My figure paintings are informed by powerful Renaissance realists like Michaelangelo, and modern masters of sensuality like Gauguin, Klimt, Matisse, Degas, and Van Gogh.  African art, various indigenous arts, and Japanese ukiyo-e prints have also been influential.   Contemporary painting has branched off in many new directions, but figure painting always adapts, and retains its universal and timeless appeal and endless possibilities.

In addition to my figure art, I do many other kinds of art and photography...