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For me, art has been an evolving process of learning. As a child I would spend hours working on elaborate drawings on posterboard, creating vast and impossible cities and landscapes. When I was 12, I was given my first computer. It was rather primitive by today’s standards, but eventually I taught myself how to program it and wrote a simple graphics program to create, edit and save drawings.
When I attended college at Penn State University, I studied graphic design, photography, art history, and computer animation, in addition to learning how to draw and paint with oils. Each new technique was a new tool for creating art, and the main focus of my work was to create art that was not constrained by technical limitations.
In my earlier shaped paintings, I attempted to create canvases which convey a sense of fragmented realism in order to show an interior space or a landscape in a way which goes beyond conventional organization of perspective, linear design and static time.
After a period of painting more conventional oil paintings, I started to work with incorporating collage into acrylic paintings to add new textures and found elements, as well as enlarged photographs. Photography had always been a vital element in my shaped canvas work, as I would use photos as reference points. I found that incorporating the actual photos into the painted pieces added a gritty sense of realism to the pieces that couldn't be accomplished with painting alone. Most recently, I started working more with the photos as the main basis for the pieces. The rigid linear structure of the collaged photographs acts as a counterpoint to my organic and broad-brushed painting style.
In 2005 I started to experiment with a more purely collage-oriented approach, using figures from old coloring books and consumer products in my work, and incorporating more humor into the images. I've found these collages to be great fun to make and many people really respond well to them.
In 1990, I discovered something called "mail art" which is an international network of artists who exchange work by mail. I have participated in scores of exhibitions (some of which are listed below), and ran my own compilation project called "Exquisite Square." The point of mail art is that anyone is allowed to participate, and that there is no boundary between artist and audience. I also produce a publication called Shouting at the Postman, which I write and design both in print and on the web.
I’ve been exhibiting my paintings since 1991, including shows at Penn State University, art galleries, Borders books, the Philadelphia Public Library, the Art Institute of Philadelphia and assorted coffee shops. I was a committee member of the Artists Guild of the Delaware Valley for much of 2000, and won several awards in their exhibitions. I was inducted into the Highwire Gallery in March 2004.
Nov. 2008: Branches, Highwire Gallery, Philadelphia
Nov. 2005: Recessive Traits, Highwire Gallery, Philadelphia
Sept. 2004: Assembly, two person show with Lisa Spera at Highwire Gallery, Philadelphia
July 2000: Gravity, Borders Book Shop, Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia
Oct. 1999: Explorations, Borders Book Shop, Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia
June 1999: The Majestic Elephant, The Bean Scene Café, Philadelphia
Feb. 1999: Tangents, The Bean Scene Café, Philadelphia
April 1998: Passing Fragments, The Bean Scene Cafe, Philadelphia
June 1994: Greed and Loneliness/Peace and Happiness, The Daily Grind, State College, Pennsylvania
Mar. 1993: The Busted Mirror, The Daily Grind, State College, Pennsylvania
Aug. 1992: Severed Moments, Pattee Library at Pennsylvania State University, University Park
November, 2009: The Bacon Show, Mew Gallery, Philadelphia
July, 2009: The Sock Monkey Show, Langhorne Coffee House, Langhorne, Pennsylvania
February, 2009: Lookin' for Love, Highwire Gallery, Philadelphia
January, 2009: Side by Side, Highwire Gallery, Philadelphia
December, 2008: Small Works Show, Highwire Gallery, Philadelphia
December, 2007: Sock and Awe, Mew Gallery, Philadelphia
June, 2007: Sock Monkeys Rule, The Frame Shop & Gallery, Lambertville, New Jersey
Jan. 2006: Tainted Art Party, The Stone Pony, Asbury Park, New Jersey
Jan. 2006: Side by Side, Highwire Gallery, Philadelphia
Dec. 2005: All Works Group Show, Highwire Gallery, Philadelphia
Aug. 2005: Big Art Show, The Athenaeum, Philadelphia
Mar. 2001: La Donna Ieri é Oggi, Villa Ida, Trezzano Rosa, Italy
Dec. 2000: The Year of Chance, Artpool Gallery, Budapest
Oct. 2000: Artists Guild of the Delaware Valley show, Free Library of Philadelphia, Main Branch
Aug. 2000: Philadelphia: People and Places, The Art Institute, Philadelphia
Mar. 2000: A Tribute to Women & Women Artists, Free Library of Philadelphia, Main Branch
1999 & 2000: Several collages shown in conjunction with Ray Johnson: Correspondences at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York and Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio
Dec. 1999: Arte Postal: Hacia el Nuevo Milenio, Museo de Filatela de Oaxaca, Mexico
June 1999: Omaha Beach, Saint-Lô, France
May 1999: H20, May-Irene Aasen, Oslo, Norway
Sept. 1998: The Next Word, Neuberger Museum of Art, SUNY Purchase, New York
July 1998: The Renegade Library, Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba, Canada
Sept. 1997: Working in a Coal Mine, Winterslag, Genk, Belguim
Dec. 1995: Artist's Stamp, Biblioteca Comunale di Ballao, Italy
July 2009: Totes Hold Their Own as Art, Philadelphia Inquirer. An article about tote bags in the Style section included an image of one of my Recessive Traits designs.
Nov 2008: A First Friday of a New Age, Philadelphia Weekly Press reviewed the Branches show.
Nov 2005: Absurd Creativity in Out & About entertainment paper discussed the Recessive Traits show.
Sept 2004: Parts of the Whole in Time Off Bucks County discussed the Assembly show.
Sept 2004: The New Art Season is Here, Center City Philadelphia Weekly Press reviewed the "Assembly" show.
June 2001: Berliner Straßenmagazin Motz, Berlin, Germany. An article about the "Obdachlosigkeit" show included a photo of my work.
May 1998: Interviewed for issue 1708 of the French philatelic magazine L'echo de la Timbrologie.
June 1996: Pozvánka: A lecture featuring slides of my paintings by artist Ivan Preissler in Prague, Czech Republic
2009: Designed new website for Highwire Gallery
2004: Inducted as member of Highwire Gallery, Philadelphia
2000: Committee Member, Artists Guild of Delaware Valley
1998-2006: Cult Figure of the Year, was an annual interactive art project I created and maintained.
1997-2000: Exquisite Square, an interactive art project I created, had over 200 participants from 27 countries.
1996: Produced oil paintings for the covers of Psychiatric Annals and The Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services magazines on a freelance basis
1995-Present: Employed as a graphic designer in Trenton, New Jersey
1995 - 2006: Wrote and produced Shouting at the Postman, an eclectic publication of art, fiction and nonfiction. It was published simultaneously on paper and on the Internet. It has been listed on the MOMA research website of mail art periodicals.
1991: The Pennsylvania State University, Bachelor of Arts in Drawing & Painting with a minor in Art History
