BIO/CV Much of my newer work reflects my fascination with the complexity of the human experience which I explore using multiple layers of paint, oil pastel, inks, and collage. These metaphoric works, which both reveal and hide, allow some thoughts to emerge from below the surface of the pictorial plane and others to remain hidden below the surface, paralleling the multi-layered natures of individuals, communities, and even the land itself. I have taught abstraction with mixed media and acrylics at several locations in Ontario for a number of years now. While my classes focus on the techniques of mixed media painting, they also provide a strong element of art history, art theory and the nature and value of abstract art. For me, the most important thing as an art instructor is to encourage the artists who come to my workshops to reach out, take risks, share with each other, laugh, sometimes cry, but, most of all, to realize that they are members of a community of artists. We are all on a journey of discovery and we learn more from the journey than from the paintings we produce along the way. I believe that the process is more important than the product, because it is within the process that we dare to take chances, to play, to struggle and, ultimately, to express ourselves in our creations. Remember, we are not audience to the work of other artists, rather, we are fellow travelers who enter into a colleague's work and travel through it attempting to enjoy and understand where that particular artist is coming from. We are not judge and jury. We are fellow artists and we owe each other respectful attention. So, please explore my galleries, lessons and the rest of my website as partners in artistic endeavours. |
