Shrill Joy

Discover Form. Embody Emotion. Affirm Harmony.

I’ve lived all but a few years of my life on a peninsula and have a keen sense of being surrounded by light. The Atlantic coastline, the Everglades, and the Florida prairies ground my experience. Light, color, space, and the land forms I know are central to my art and the inspiring sources for my abstractions.

A fourth-generation Florida native, I was born in Melbourne, Florida. My earliest vivid memories are of the open sky, cloud forms, and the rhythmic movement of the ocean against the coastline. Growing up on the southeast Florida coast, I lived outside like most kids; free to discover and wonder at the world, guided by desire or chance. I learned on my own the natural aspects of visual imagery; the interplay of light and color on form, and the qualities of rhythm and dynamic balance. The very things that restore harmony to life.

My paintings are abstract but refer to specific locations, events, or memories as the titles suggest. My essential process always involves a development of the right qualities of color, surface, light, gesture, shape, and edge to discover an expressive form. I apply color by soaking paint into the raw canvas or art paper, sometimes by spraying, or with painting knives, and with traditional brushes or with brushes I make myself. Often paintings begin as raw canvas on the floor or on a table. After the initial colors and shapes are applied and an image is beginning to make itself known, I stretch the canvas, hang it on the studio wall, and proceed until I've discovered the completed form. I usually work on several paintings at a time.

Drawing is integral to my artistic practice. I make hundreds of them in studio books and on a variety of art papers. I believe drawing is a fundamental way of knowing and it is the most direct way of discovering vivid imagery. My drawings stand as works of art themselves, but often reveal new directions for my painting. Drawing discoveries are therefore both a gift and a challenge.

I have a B.F.A. degree in painting from Florida State University, a Masters degree in Sculpture, and a M.F.A. degree in Inter-media from the University of Iowa.

I taught art while simultaneously pursuing my own painting practice. In those years, I showed my paintings regularly in group exhibitions and sold work through gallery representation. My drawings and paintings are in private collections in Florida. Large paintings are also in the collection of the University of South Florida Medical School and in private medical practices in Florida.