I have always been aware of the simple beauty in this world. Like the sunlight across the floor, rippling water, color, the shape of a leaf—the sights that are all around us every day. The ordinary that is exquisitely beautiful: the stillness in the moment, in my breath. My paintings are a direct conversation and exploration of that stillness.

For me, it is a journey of self-exploration to fling paint, to see what arises on the canvas—painting not what is seen, but what is really there.

Working with acrylics on canvas, I paint for the sheer joy of colors, to tell a story, to answer a question, to ask a question: a continuous process of growth and learning.

My pieces are simple yet universal images that tell stories of an almost spiritual nature: flowing shapes of animals, birds, and people searching, reaching out or moving toward an unknown destination which sometimes takes them off the painted surface.

I love colors: bright bold colors and subtle shades. I love seeing what will show up on the canvas, what wants to be painted. I love the feel of the brush, of the motion, the texture of paint on canvas. Many of my pieces are born of a mistake or an unintentional brush stroke that suddenly becomes an eye, the curve of an arm, or the snout of an animal.

My painting is deeply influenced by two worlds, the deep woods of Maine where I grew up, and the wild mountains and wide-open spaces of the West, where I now live. These natural worlds come together with my inner spiritual self; from there I create my art.