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Millstone Series
  This was the first series (created in 2000) where a conscious effort was made to show a frictional relationship between man-made devices and nature. Based primarily on the circle and square, the compositional design for each piece places natural items together with the man-made millstone so prevalent in my area of the country. This series was created in a large 4 foot by 4 foot format in order to capture a sense of scale for the millstone. This series was shown in my first one-man show at Lynden Gallery, Elizabethtown, PA in 2001. Although this series is now completed, the circle and square format used in these paintings continues to this day in all my work.
Last Birch Leaf
(48"x48")
Zen Circle Series
  Exploring the Japanese Zen Buddhist concept of wabi-sabi, the compositions in Zen Circle Series concentrate on the tension between nature and man-made items positioned on a simple, austere background. The circle, which was so prevalent in the Millstone Series, is now downplayed as either a textural edge of a curved surface or incised into the background or lightly painted onto the background area. This is an effort to direct attention to the inherent beauty of impermanence in wabi-sabi by focusing attention on the play between the natural items and those man-made. Started in 2002 this series has become my most prolific in number of pieces completed and continues today. Selections were shown in a one-man show at Lynden Gallery, Elizabethtown, PA in 2003.
Cattail
(24"x24")
Golden Circle Series
  Expanding on the idea of wabi-sabi, this series emphasizes the circle as a more important element in the overall and much more colorful compositions.  Being one of the oldest symbols known to man, I use the circle as both a means to tighten the composition and to symbolically show the lack of continuance and unity between man and nature. By deliberately causing breaks in the gold painted circle by wearing parts of it away, the circle loses its symbolic significance of the cycle of life. The subject matter remains the same as it was for the original Zen Circle series where natural items are very often held in place by nails, barbed wire or string. Begun in 2004, this series was recently shown in a one-man show at Lynden Gallery, Elizabethtown, PA in 2005.
Eastern Door
(24"x24")
Industrial Series
  The Industrial Series, begun in 2004, is an ongoing attempt to show the ravages of the elements played out on man-made surfaces in the continual battle between man and nature. The aging, weathered man-made surfaces showing deterioration through rusted pitting, scrapes and peeling paint create an interesting background for the nature objects trapped under wires, metal or other man-made items. The circle takes on a new appearance, as it literally becomes a physical part of the textural surface.
Winter Landscape
(24"x24")
Tile Series
  This series, begun in 2005, incorporates the look of old, worn tiles found on the floors of Mexican or Mediterranean homes and buildings. The tiles are painted a variation of the symbolic colors used so often in Buddhist art ­ red, blue, yellow and green. I then allow colorful leaves to “fall” into place onto the tiles with nothing man-made holding them in place; thus creating a Zen feeling of fleeting beauty before they are swept away.
Maple Leaf
(24"x24")
Collections Series
  My attempt to show how man insistently tries to harness and dominate his natural environment led me to develop this series of paintings. In it, I show very orderly groupings or rows of natural items such as shells, leaves, stones or feathers arranged and tightly secured under taut string as a symbolic message of man’s domineering attitude towards nature. The compositions present a trompe l’oeil visual effect that inevitably draws the viewer into the work. It is a continual series which was first begun as graphite and colored pencil drawings in 2000 until I switched to acrylics in 2004.
Harnessing The Sun
(24"x24")
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