Artist Statement

What happens when painting attempts to do without the use of form? A better question might be what happens when form is painting's goal? When form is the goal, paint serves to represent something else: an object, a view, a figure, a face. Considered this way, figurative painting is actually an abstraction of something "real." That frees Abstract painting to become the true realism, since Abstract painting is about the paint, and how paint never stops being paint.  But what if a painting could convey space without sacrificing paint always being paint? This would be painting with primary attention given to the paint as its own entity, yet still conveying spatial elements of form dealing with the work on multiple levels. The paint draws you in, while simultaneously the surfaces and forms come forward, thus using surface as a representation of space. The significance is immense. Illusionary space was the goal of all painters from the Renaissance up to Picasso, who redefined that goal with the dislocations of Cubism. Clement Greenberg's writing emphasized the philosophical underpinnings of Abstraction – of making art that is about the purity of material and process – so that a painting could become both subject and object.

In the hands of the California fetish-finish artists of the 60's and 70's, this "objectiveness" resulted in surfaces refined to mimic the finish of a car in the Southern California car culture.  All of these historical elements blend with new ideas in the work of abstract painters who bring space back into the dialogue while using the surface as the abstracted object --thus bridging the gap between abstraction and realism in a way that continues the ongoing discourse of illusionary space. 

MUSEUM  PERMANENT COLLECTIONS:

HYDE COLLECTION   Glen Falls, New York

PACE  UNIVERSITY  GALLERIES   New York, N.Y.

FROST ART MUSEUM  Miami, Florida

ELGIZ MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART   Istanbul, Turkey

AMARILLO MUSEUM OF ART   Amarillo, Texas

FORT WAYNE MUSEUM OF ART    Fort Wayne, Indiana

MULVANE ART MUSEUM     Topeka, Kansas

NORTHERN ARIZONA UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM   Flagstaff, Arizona

SOUTHERN ALLEGHENIES MUSEUM OF ART   Loretto, Pennslyvania 

HOUSATONIC MUSEUM OF ART      Bridgeport, Connecticut 

FSU- MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS   MOFA   Florida State University   Tallahassee, Florida 

DAVID WINTON BELL GALLERY     List Art Center-Brown University    Providence, Rhode Island  

USF-CONTEMPORARY ART MUSEUM   University of Southern Florida     Tampa, Florida

BOCA RATON MUSEUM OF ART   Boca Raton, Florida

CARNEGIE ART MUSEUM   Oxnard, California

TUCSON MUSEUM OF ART   Tucson, Arizona

BAKERSFIELD MUSEUM OF ART   Bakersfield, California

MISSISSIPPI MUSEUM OF ART     Jackson, Mississippi

TRITON MUSEUM OF ART   Santa Clara, California

MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS  MOFA    St. Petersburg, Florida

NAPLES MUSEUM OF ART    Naples, Florida

ST. LOUIS MUSEUM OF ART    Saint Louis, Missouri

Eli and Edythe BROAD MUSEUM OF ART  Michigan State University   East Lansing, Michigan

CROCKER ART MUSEUM   Sacramento, California

FOOSANER ART MUSEUM  Melbourne, Florida

LA SALLE UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM  Philadelphia, Pennslyvania

ROBERT V. FULLERTON ART MUSEUM   San Bernardino, California

DAUM MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART    Sedalia, Missouri

DE SAISSET MUSEUM OF ART   Santa Clara, California

UNIVERSITY OF MAINE MUSEUM OF ART   Bangor, Maine

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN MUSEUM OF ART   Ann Arbor, Michigan

ILLINOIS STATE MUSEUM      Springfield, Illinois

OWENSBORO MUSEUM OF FINE ART   Owensboro, Kentucky 

KNOXVILLE MUSEUM OF ART   Knoxville, Tennessee

ARKANSAS ARTS FOUNDATION   Little Rock, Arkansas

MILDRED LANE KEMPER ART MUSEUM   Washington University   Saint Louis, Missouri

EVANSVILLE MUSEUM OF ART, HISTORY and SCIENCE   Evansville, Indiana

SPRINGFIELD ART MUSEUM    Springfield, Missouri

MARIANNA KISTLER BEACH MUSEUM OF ART   Kansas State University   Manhattan, Kansas

ST. LOUIS  UNIVERSITY MUSEUM OF ART  Saint. Louis, Missouri

MUSEUM OF ART & ARCHAEOLOGY   University of Missouri   Columbia, Missouri 

UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY MUSEUM OF ART   Lexington, Kentucky

MITCHELL ART MUSEUM    Mt. Vernon, Illinois

LONGVIEW MUSEUM OF FINE ART     Longview, Texas

EL PASO MUSEUM OF ART   El Paso, Texas

LOVELAND MUSEUM OF ART   Loveland, Colorado

SOUTHERN NEVADA MUSEUM OF FINE ART   Las Vegas, Nevada

ST. GEORGE ART MUSEUM    St. George, Utah

WESTMONT COLLEGE REYNOLDS GALLERY   Santa Barbara, California

SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY   Edwardsville, Illinois

CALIFORNIA  CENTER FOR THE ARTS MUSEUM  Escondido, California

CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY GUGGENHEIM GALLERY      Orange, California