Co Here

As a child I spent hours attempting to hold eye contact with my dog, Chico. I was fascinated with the warmth of his skin and fur, sound of his heartbeat, and the idea that this other being, a Chihuahua-mixed-mutt was alive, like me, yet different.

I also enjoyed many hours exploring the woods near our house in Columbus, Ohio. These were adventurous afternoons alone with my imagination and lack of fear, crashing through wild waves of weeds, scaling the cliffs by the side of the creek, jumping out of trees. I resembled a suburban Mowgli or Tarzan, coming home late for dinner, encrusted with mud, ticks, and dried blood.

Kind and understanding parents are a wonderful thing. I started to draw and paint what I enjoyed as a kid, animals. The idea of using animal forms as symbols or totems in art is an old one and my challenge, is finding something that speaks to me personally, trying to avoid clichés. In my painting, I've settled on animals that I see as having more than one side, multiple meanings. For example, buffaloes are powerful, but passive. Horses are stately, but wild. Dogs are needy, and loyal. And, although I admit I've never met a bear, mine have an endearing anxiousness beneath exaggerated claws and fangs. Though, in the end, painting is all color and process, and subject matter is the skeleton it sits on. The painting grows itself with one shape creating the next, one color suggesting another. It goes through cycles of clarity and confusion, until suddenly you step back and there it is.

I'm not one to give detailed descriptions of the small nuances of meaning I place on a particular image. From the viewer's standpoint, it wouldn't/shouldn't make a discernible difference. I believe a painting's success or failure is judged on that moment when all the design problems work themselves out and the germ of my original idea is out of my head, at least momentarily.

I invite you to look at my work and find your own meaning and response based on the images and action of the paint and composition. Or just look at the image and notice how the color comes together or how the painting may evoke a feeling. Perhaps you will suddenly recall the shape of your first dog's face or the feel of his warm tongue on the palm of your hand. And thank you for looking.