I am a collector. Which, I guess, is one of the major requirements for someone who works in mixed media, using "found" materials. I also use traditional artist's materials, such as acrylic and oil paints, gouache and watercolors, and colored pencils. My real fascination is with the imaginative or unusual juxtaposition of textures, patterns, and colors which help to create interesting, and, sometimes, surprising visual relationships, or "connections," in my work. I am constantly picking up things which I find interesting that are laying on the ground: scraps of paper or cardboard; old washers; rusty pieces of metal; old wood with faded, cracked, or chipped paint; buttons; objects flattened by traffic; etc. Each of these objects has individual surface characteristics, or textures, based on where it has been, and what has happened to it. I'm particularly interested in objects which bear marks left by both man and nature. In my work, I attempt to use the visual relationships mentioned above, to create a new "aesthetic" for these "castoffs," so that people may view them in a new way.

As a real "junk addict" I tend to find usable ephemera, from a variety of sources, practically everywhere I look: city streets and parking lots, house and other building demolition sites, abandoned buildings, local beaches, and "vacant" lots. (A favorite material of mine is the layered billboard advertisements that can sometimes be found in rain-soaked heaps, beneath the billboards from which they have fallen.) I also love old books and maps, and use pieces of them in my work. Once, in the rafters of the garage of a house I was moving into, I found a number of old maps dating from the 1920's, '30's, and '40's, which all had a very different "look" from the maps we use today. These differences from one era, or time period, to another create contrasts which fascinate me, and, frequently, they find their way into some of my drawings, and boxes.

I work, primarily, in two distinct formats: two dimensional pieces, on paper or museum board, (framed, and under glass), which I consider drawings or paintings (even though they are, usually, created using a variety of materials, and so, would, technically, be considered mixed media), and pieces, usually on wood or panel, which incorporate a variety of two dimensional, and low-relief, three dimensional materials and objects, set off by a "shadow box" frame. These pieces I refer to as "scrap boxes."

My formal education in the visual arts was received primarily from the California College of Arts and Crafts (now, California College of the Arts, with campuses in Oakland, and San Francisco, California). I received my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from CCAC in 1970, and my Education Credential, and Master of Fine Arts degree (in painting) in 1971.

Please contact me at my e-mail address: scrapbox9@hotmail.com for further information about my work, generally, or questions about specific pieces in my absolutearts portfolio.

Shipping and insurance costs are in addition to the purchase price of the artwork.

Thank you for you interest in my work!