After writing for two decades, I was developing an idea that I knew could be better expressed as a painting. So in the mid-eighties I took up full-time a life-time passion: painting.

My work is about inner energy; about, first of all, my own energy and internal balance, reinforced through the practice of yoga and tai chi. I sign the inner energy of the subject matter onto the canvas.

I work with acrylics on canvas and sumi-e inks on rice paper. I also sculpt using wood, copper and leather.

Along with focusing on the inner energy of my subject matter, I am constantly working with an awareness that humans have an ancient need to see form, be it in clouds or in chipped paint on a wall or in waving leaves. The ability to decipher forms is part of our oldest survival skills. Imagine the advantage of being able to quickly spot the approaching bear among the shifting shadows of trees. Imagine the advantage and the thrill.

On many canvases, I create forms so the viewer “discovers” them in an uplifting act. Often, I give the paint its head in creating forms, like freeing a captured animal.

The energy from the work will excite the viewer, but after a longer look, it leads the viewer into a place of balanced tranquility....