An appreciation and study of art has always been part of my DNA. I started taking classes on how to paint with local artists and on-line courses about six years ago.

I have been working as a manual therapist and a speech pathologist for 48 years. I began to want to paint the STRUCTURES I have studied for years in my therapy course work. I found, as I was fortunate enough to palpate the different tissues in my clients, that the structure and functions of the brain and body began to emerge on my canvases. I would see the patterns of the body and brain reflected in nature as I walked around my neighborhood and on vacation in Hilton Head Island, Nags Head, California and Europe.

Many of the paintings are images that are reflective of patterns that are repeated in humans and nature. There is a pattern in humans and nature – a life force – that is undeniable. Hence, when God created something good, he repeats it in humans and nature. These patterns are also seen in the clothing we wear and what we allow to surround us in our homes. Art is everywhere.

I try to capture the feeling and essence of an image with the hope that as one examines the works they will feel a sense of joy or remember a time in their life when they experienced the beauty of nature.

Several of the paintings are what images would be if one was to examine them under a microscope. The detail in the patterns and the reflective colors are surprising and awe-inspiring. Moving down the walls of the coronary artery… seeing the patterns in a goose feather or fish tail…how the the brain as it moves down into the spinal cord resembles jelly fish descending into a coral reef… I attempt to express these images.

The art frequently captures an entire structure that will move into a micro-image followed by an abstraction, such as Ladies at Sunset, followed by Sailboat Race the next day at the beach, moving into an abstraction of the colors in both of the paintings. The image of fall foliage reflected in a pond followed by an abstraction of those colors. The painting of the cross-section of the spinal cord leading into the pelvis is reflected in the painting of Robin blue eggs in a nest nestled in a tree, followed by a painting of a butterfly taking flight in a forest leading into the abstract painting and energy of the cells synapsing in the bones of the legs. How are patterns in Humans reflected in Nature? It is endless!

I was inspired to include people in my paintings after viewing an exhibit of William Merritt Chase, an American artist at the Phillips Gallery in Washington, DC. Landscapes in themselves are beautiful but when there are people in those paintings it becomes a story.

The images of people in the paintings brings another level of being. We can just see it as a landscape or sense a story created by our experience or an image captured in the history of the time or place. The hope is that when one views the paintings in the sequence of these series it will become a deeper experience for the viewer. One may ask what lies beyond the light in the path of seagrass in Nags Head? What is the story behind the recurring orange umbrella – a romance or does the artist just like orange umbrellas? Maybe both. The paintings of Silhouettes in the ‘Sunset’ became the beginning of the ‘Romance’ that leads into ‘The Wedding With Treasured Friends’  — all in the umbrella of the moonlight.

The art tries in some series to explore the excitement of anticipation: What is beyond the Barge moving down the Potomac? What is at the end of the path of the painting from Walking in San Sebastian with the person with the ‘Orange Umbrella?’ The surprise that the tourist will experience as the waves hit them as they gaze at the beauty of the sea. The locals with their umbrellas chuckle knowing that they have once been surprised by the ‘Wave Soak.’ The beauty and awe of “The Next Wave” in Rehoboth Beach at Sunset.

The paintings often capture the energy of the image rather than a perfect representation. A photograph can do that. There is a looseness and a rawness to the art that allows for a sense of expansion – hopefully allowing the viewers to create their own story about the painting.

The stories and images are endless and up to us to conceptualize, visualize and experience. I try to offer this in the paintings. There is more to come in each series so the stories will continue and expand in time as life experiences are reflected through my brushes and the colors on the palette.

This website is the artist’s first attempt to share the paintings that have brought me so much joy as they were created. I hope you enjoy them.