the art of place – vision, color & form

I grew up seeing WPA era murals – pastel yachters, heroic colonials, and fierce leatherstocking back-woodsmen who lived on the walls of local public buildings.

Occasional train trips to Manhattan introduced me to the vast, mysterious Metropolitan Museum of Art. My favorite, the Egyptian rooms – yes, mummies, but also the exquisite watercolor reproductions of tomb frescoes. A lost world in procession. The Museum of Modern Art was strange and challenging. Guernica was still there; it seemed very ‘incorrect’ yet I kept looking and looking. And how could Picasso make a monochromatic painting appear so colorful?

I followed the sunset to my future in the West, all the way to San Francisco and the CA College of the Arts. All cities should be built on hills between the ocean and a bay. Laura and I met in a painting class sub-titled ‘Murals.’ This landed us in a State Psychiatric Hospital (site of the project) for months. It was a trial by fire which tempered us well for any future project or client!

We spent a period of years in San Diego learning how to be artists working with architects and designers. But alas, urban sprawl decorated with palm trees is still just a desert in disguise.

In Portland we have found our true home and have done our best work here. We are at heart eclectic, color loving, make by hand artists who believe in the redeeming value of beauty. So a city with ten bridges (all of different design), green roofs, backroom coffee roasters, a love affair with farmers’ markets and great food, all presided over by a titanic copper goddess is our kind of place.

My intention for the future is continuing to find ways to integrate our image and form-making skills in conjunction with architecture and the life of the city – for enjoyment, healing, and education. So many sites in waiting….restaurants, healthcare facilities, workplaces, schools, theaters, and centers of worship. Inspired, attuned art can uplift and inform them all.

Non-commissioned pursuits in the studio keep fresh ideas flowing which in turn feed my work with clients for site-specific projects.

Click here to see my monotype prints.