I am a painter. I make many different types of paintings. Lately, for example, I have been interested in surfaces and textures, both real and illusionary. These are sometimes paired with various visual devices, with an attempt to create a whole and logical piece of work. I am also working with unstretched acrylic paintings, covering a wide range of subjects. For example, I just completed a piece based on Rimbaud’s poem, “The Drunken Boat”.

I have a painter's sensibilities, but I also do computer art. When I first started doing computer art, it was very early on.  It was unusual to have a painter who also used the computer at that time. These days it is not so unusual. I studied painting and I have been painting for many years, I have a continual body of work that stretches back a long time.  I am a professor and I teach computer art, but I don't teach painting on a regular basis. This is because I ended up getting a teaching job at a school where the painting area was full, but there was a deep need for computer-based arts. So I guess I could say that I make my living off of computer art, but my heart is still with my first love.

I've said in previous artist's statements that I'm a romantic. I still feel this way although I was enamored with the idea of being a romantic more than I am one. In fact I'm a very creative person and I follow whatever whim my mind takes me on. I've never been afraid to follow the idea regardless of whether it fits in with my current work or not. Jeff Koons once said that I couldn't stay put long enough to ever become successful. I suppose he's correct although I've never run out of things to paint or ideas to follow. I guess my lot in life is to be a happy artist but not a famous one. I think I'll choose happy. Many years ago I said that I wanted to be happy and I have followed that goal rather than sticking to strategically thought out concepts or signature styles.

I studied with Ray Yoshida and Whitney Halsted at the school of the Art Institute of Chicago. I have both my degrees from there, finishing in 1978. My training was in painting and I was taught that more than anything else the painting should be complete in itself. Each time I approach the material that I'm working with, I look at it as an independent unit that has its own logic and its own conclusion. I usually understand when it's going to fit with my current work or fit with another set of work that I've been compiling over many years.  There is a logic to the grouping of my work although I may have pieces that are current that relate to work I did 30 years ago. I generally have no problem showing older work alongside newer work because sometimes they're part of a set that was done over a 30 year period of time. One of the great things about not having a signature style is that you can put up all different kinds of shows and keep people guessing as to what you will do next. Because of that I always have a show ready at any given time. This is gotten me many exhibits over the years.  One other advantage to working the way I do is that there are paths that I crossed over the years that I never explored that I can always go back to. Again I have not run out of ideas since I began painting.

I remember a dream that I had many years ago where I was in a large exhibit of my own work. I remember walking up to many of the paintings and looking at them. Each was different and none were paintings that I had done in the past. There were hundreds and hundreds of paintings in the exhibit. That’s when I realized I would never run out of new things to do.

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