Artist Statement
“Painting for me is like solving a problem or a riddle. I look at a California landscape and wonder how to paint it. It is already so perfect, so beautiful. How do you paint what you see and feel? How do you paint atmosphere? The discipline of painting is for me full of technical challenges and emotional mysteries. Sometimes a subject just calls to you, reaches out and asks to be painted. Once I walked through the Mill Valley Market and was almost assaulted by a Mother’s Day Cake. It stopped me in my tracks.My 'Food in Plastic' series came to me in a similar way. I was amazed at the prevalence and often needless use of plastic in our grocery stores. Why for instance, would cucumbers need to be shrink wrapped? Or fresh apples be encased in large plastic boxes? The use of plastic has proliferated since I started the series, so much so that I've completed a second plastic-themed series, 'Masters in Plastic'. The over arching message to this series is because we are so surrounded by plastic, we fail to see it. When taken out of context and included in copies of iconic old master paintings, plastic becomes visible again. The series remains humorous, and thought provoking; a less preachy approach to an ongoing problem."