After teaching Printmaking at Indiana University and as Master Printer at Tandem Press for more than 25 years, I have participated in a world of printmaking that has seen many changes, both stylistically and technically, from traditional multi-run color images, to piece work designed for large scale installations. In those years I have met, worked with and been influenced by over 60 national and internationally known artists. Their divergent approaches and styles have all had three things in common… the artist’s dedication to the seriousness of the task at hand, a confidence of vision, and an enduring work ethic. These are the attributes that have influenced me the most as both an artist and printer. Over the years my commitment to printmaking as a medium of expression has been unwavering, and is a testament to Tandem Press’s success.
In 2009 I started a body of work inspired by the drawings of Saul Steinberg and Ben Shahn, the architecture of Antoni Gaugi and Frank Gehry, and the post cubist imagery of the American abstract movement of the 1940-50’s. Their whimsical line, cubist shapes and color sensibilities inform my work, which is rooted in this same abstraction of architecture, shapes and doodles that, in turn, become landscapes of my imagination.
I am aware that these works (being landscape in nature) speak to the ideas about the human manipulation of the environment and our ecology. I do not set out to make politicized images, but rather envelop myself in the work at hand, responding to the image, and making decisions based on what I see on the page.