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Display area of my studio in Ridgeland, SC
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BIO/ARTIST STATEMENT
I am a lifelong practicing artist. As a boy I began collecting objects and materials from around my natural environment: shells from the nearby seashore, antique bottles from behind overgrown stonewalls, and dead insects from surrounding fields and forests. I loved to draw cartoons and assemble models of the human body. At 12 I took a correspondence course in taxidermy, but it was short lived as I could not kill my first project, a bird. I went on to receive a BFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design and later a Master of Arts in Teaching: Creative Arts from Bridgewater University. I retired from teaching high school art in 2017 but I continue to teach and lecture. My work has appeared in various galleries and museums in the U.S including the Attleboro Art Museum, Attleboro, MA, Imago Gallery of Fine Art and Craft, Warren, RI, Synchronicity Space, NYC, Wustum Museum of Fine Arts, Racine, WI as well as Aperture, Issue 120: Beyond Wilderness and publication in the June’20 issue of Presence: An International Journal of Spiritual Direction.
Over the years I have immersed myself in various mediums for extended periods of time...social documentary photography, assemblage sculpture...but in the early '80's I seized an opportunity to work with two very bright and forward thinking people to create experimental electronic music. We formed an art/music company called Dubco and our first music project was a trio called dub buddies. My instrument was to 'play' the sound generated by the other musicians using a device we assembled that we called The Dubatron. We were essentially a live 'dub' band...and my role was an early precursor to today's EDM DJ's. This open ended exploration led me to delve into a newly emerging technological visual medium...digital art.
In 1985 Years before the release of Adobe Photoshop I made three unique digital images. I created this work at Lightspeed Computers in Boston. Artist and entrepreneur Francis Olshafskie created a proprietary graphics imaging software company for leading edge photographers. I rented time off hours on the system to create art with these new tools using my own photographs and topical images collected from print media. I explored this unique medium because it was new, exciting and leading edge. I viewed this as the visual equivalent to what I was doing musically.
Art making has always been a way to serve my curiosity, a curiosity with things and ideas born from lived experiences. It has been the primary way in which I pursue wonder and joy and in a much deeper sense it has become a spiritual practice. The best definition I've heard for spirituality is the bewilderment and astonishment at the mystery of existence. I find this is apt, for the process of creating art is fun, imaginative, reflective, mysterious, adventurous, and educational. While my work over the past ten years has been in the form of sculptural assemblages I am returning to my teaching roots to offer creative spirit guidance to those seeking a path to self inquiry and expression.
Always, my artistic aim is to arouse curiosity, discovery and imagination in the viewer.
I am a lifelong practicing artist. As a boy I began collecting objects and materials from around my natural environment: shells from the nearby seashore, antique bottles from behind overgrown stonewalls, and dead insects from surrounding fields and forests. I loved to draw cartoons and assemble models of the human body. At 12 I took a correspondence course in taxidermy, but it was short lived as I could not kill my first project, a bird. I went on to receive a BFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design and later a Master of Arts in Teaching: Creative Arts from Bridgewater University. I retired from teaching high school art in 2017 but I continue to teach and lecture. My work has appeared in various galleries and museums in the U.S including the Attleboro Art Museum, Attleboro, MA, Imago Gallery of Fine Art and Craft, Warren, RI, Synchronicity Space, NYC, Wustum Museum of Fine Arts, Racine, WI as well as Aperture, Issue 120: Beyond Wilderness and publication in the June’20 issue of Presence: An International Journal of Spiritual Direction.
Over the years I have immersed myself in various mediums for extended periods of time...social documentary photography, assemblage sculpture...but in the early '80's I seized an opportunity to work with two very bright and forward thinking people to create experimental electronic music. We formed an art/music company called Dubco and our first music project was a trio called dub buddies. My instrument was to 'play' the sound generated by the other musicians using a device we assembled that we called The Dubatron. We were essentially a live 'dub' band...and my role was an early precursor to today's EDM DJ's. This open ended exploration led me to delve into a newly emerging technological visual medium...digital art.
In 1985 Years before the release of Adobe Photoshop I made three unique digital images. I created this work at Lightspeed Computers in Boston. Artist and entrepreneur Francis Olshafskie created a proprietary graphics imaging software company for leading edge photographers. I rented time off hours on the system to create art with these new tools using my own photographs and topical images collected from print media. I explored this unique medium because it was new, exciting and leading edge. I viewed this as the visual equivalent to what I was doing musically.
Art making has always been a way to serve my curiosity, a curiosity with things and ideas born from lived experiences. It has been the primary way in which I pursue wonder and joy and in a much deeper sense it has become a spiritual practice. The best definition I've heard for spirituality is the bewilderment and astonishment at the mystery of existence. I find this is apt, for the process of creating art is fun, imaginative, reflective, mysterious, adventurous, and educational. While my work over the past ten years has been in the form of sculptural assemblages I am returning to my teaching roots to offer creative spirit guidance to those seeking a path to self inquiry and expression.
Always, my artistic aim is to arouse curiosity, discovery and imagination in the viewer.
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