One beautiful fall afternoon, I attended a painting class at the Art Students League on 57th Street in New York City. That afternoon, my life and art practice were transposed, “metamorphosized” and just “blown away” by one of the true great masters from the lineage of Titian, Frans Hal, Ogata Korin, Cezanne, Matisse, and De Kooning. The artist was Knox Martin.

Martin began the session by asking the class, “How many of you would like to change your life forever?” And my life did change. He showed us how art is “a dance of intelligence — the creation of reality and doing the “Thing”. He taught us that the subject matter of what we do is creation itself.

I owe Knox Martin so much gratitude for sharing his amazing gifts, his immense talent and wisdom. He connected the lines of light from our deepest heritage, the cave painters to modern art; he showed us the grace and painterly delights of Titian, the Dutch Masters, the Ming Dynasty and so much more, all on the path of “alpha art”. From this pivotal afternoon I continue to explore the world through new eyes.

Currently, I am most concerned with the spark and passion that is energized into a painting by using a wide variety of mediums to create lines, color, pattern and design. There is a shift in my painting of paintings. Using an underlying invisible blueprint of design coupled with multifaceted senses beyond feeling is part of my palette. Nature, belief systems, man-made and other structures spark my spark.

As a painter and creator, my paintings often delight, fool and surprise me with magical gifts, as one stroke gives birth to the next until the many parts become the whole. No two paintings ever look the same. Creating a “painterly” energy that may touch the observer in an intimate way is at all times part of my creative process and love of art.