Post-stroke I have come to appreciate that necessity is the mother of invention and, in my life anyway, of creativity as well.

Life and, sometimes, art is what happens when you are making other plans. My career as an artist was heating up, becoming exciting and gaining momentum in the 1970′s and 80′s. My existing inventory of paintings and drawings continued to show and sell well into the 80′s, although, in 1981 my active pursuit of art waned. Click here to see an Exhibitions and Collections list. An intended brief sabbatical to work through what turned out to be a particularly stubborn artist’s block grew into years without the feel of a paintbrush in my hand. As fate would have it, I had stretched my last canvas, as well.

The stroke was yet another obstacle to a career as a producing artist that had been tossed in my path. Fortunately, with the stroke, my belief that an obstacle is nothing more than a challenge waiting to be met was reignited. I knew I would never be able to paint as I had in the past. (In the beginning I didn’t know if I would walk again either). I could and would, however, discover new ways of working. I have done that and have found my paintings to be more vibrant and more energized than ever.

The intersection of precisely controlled elements, mutable perspective, free spirited gestures and that, which is unexpected and often impertinent, comprises the language of my paintings. Each acrylic painting is a spontaneous work, unencumbered by pre-planning or preliminary sketches. The interplay of color, texture, or the lack thereof, curved and rectilinear shapes and hard edge line work creates a sense of motion and depth of space that invites the viewer into the painting. The illusion of containment holds the eye. The reality of an interrupted, intersected or unfinished line or color field teases the viewer into looking again and encourages stepping out of the aesthetics proverbial box.

Other art forms, i.e. hand painted scarves, jewelry, clocks and assorted crafts present me with a myriad of opportunities to learn new ways of working and to invent and adapt my environment and the tools I use to accommodate and facilitate my one-handedness.