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Education at UCLA
I received my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at UCLA, an art
school which concentrated on teaching the student to see nature,
light, and color as part of the creative process. The curriculum
emphasized original concepts as well as technical expertise.
Some of the professors who influenced my work are well-known
contemporary artists such as Jonathan Borofsky, Charles
Garabedian, Lee Mullican, Gilah Hirsch, and Sam Amato.
Subject Matter
Over the course of my art career, I have been interested in
several subjects which fall primarily into the following three
areas:
• Food
• Flowers and natural forms
• Landscapes
Why I Paint Food
There are probably two reasons why I create food paintings – the
aesthetic and the health conscious. Like almost everyone else in
this country, I will admit that I am obsessed with food.
Although I am thin, I mentally calculate my daily calorie intake
to ensure that I don’t gain any weight, and fill up by eating
lots of fruits and vegetables. I love the beautiful colors and
shapes of fruits and vegetables and their reflections on glass
and silver. I have always been attracted to the luscious food
photographs in cooking magazines and cookbooks and know that
they are images created by food stylists. As an artist, I
consider myself to be a food stylist who dramatizes foods so
they look irresistible. Maybe I am subconsciously trying to
convince people to abandon their fast food habits and focus on
nutritious, delicious fruits and vegetables or at least
recognize them for their beauty. After all, how could French
fries ever look as appealing as fresh strawberries?
Flowers and natural forms, like seashells, magnolia
pods, and rocks are also everyday objects that can contain
beauty. By again depicting the subject significantly larger than
its actual size, enhancing its color and texture, and exploring
the contrast between the inside and outside, the subject becomes
more than that ordinary object we have seen many times.
Landscapes from my travels and sites near home provide
another resource for subject matter. Two trips to Alaska
supplied me with a wide selection of material to produce
paintings of glaciers and vegetation under a variety of weather
conditions. Recent trips to Yellowstone National Park, Grand
Teton National Park, Glacier National Park, Northern California,
New England, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia provided
another source of scenic material.
Variety of Media and Styles
Pastels and oils are the primary media I use, although
occasionally I use pen and ink or watercolor. Pastels and oils
both provide the ability to apply color in layers using a
variety of textures. I use different styles depending on the
subject matter. When working with food or natural forms, I use a
realistic or hyper-realistic (more real than reality) style.
When working with landscapes, I adapt my style to the
landscape’s weather conditions and terrain. |
