There are particular aesthetic elements that exist in my work whether the specific piece is created digitally or traditionally. Harmony, tension, complexity and counterbalance in the use of color, detail, and form are basic to the structure of my images. I like surprise and sensuality to occur in both the content and the aesthetics. I am interested in creating a coherent image with a convincing reality, though, after all, it is a virtual reality. My sense of a particular environment's presence, beauties, and powers as well as my artistic interpretation of intimate and reflective moments in nature are themes in my work. I make use of my direct observations, my photography, and sketches to create these moments. Particular environments such as the Southwest, particularly Northern Arizona—with its vast beauty of contrasts and regenerating and cascading energies—has both thematic and aesthetic influence on my work.

My recent work developed initially from my Artist Residency at the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona during the summer of 2007. The impact of that desert’s solitude, climate, beauty, light and shadow and of the exposure to and retreat from its extremes resulted in imagery that is filled with watching, waiting, mystery, and sensuality. It is very personal work with shadowy bodies and hidden spaces contrasted with the light, expanse, and forms of the desert.  The digital work came from manipulating the photographs taken during my residency. The gouache paintings developed from the digital series and expanded on particular elements such as the drapery and female figure. I look forward to the influence my upcoming Residency at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon will have on my work.

Technically, the digital work reflects my ongoing investigation of digital imaging and archival fine art print production. It incorporates my photography as well as scans of my paintings and drawings that are further developed through painterly manipulation and compositing techniques using Adobe Photoshop on the computer. The gouache paintings reflect my ongoing love of working directly on paper or canvas with paint.  I often alternate working with these two media sometimes concentrating in a series created digitally and other times traditionally with paint.

The digital paintings and prints are printed on an Epson wide-format digital printer on Somerset mould-made 100% rag paper from Cuthbert Mills in England with Epson archival inks. They are archival limited edition prints and original digital paintings. I do my own scanning, editing, and printing. The gouache paintings are available as reproduced giclee prints on paper or canvas.