I was born and raised in Seattle, Washington and moved to San Francisco in my early twenties. Seattle was a great place to grow up, but I didn't handle the weather well and felt a need to "strike out on my own," so moved to my favorite city. I have now lived in the Bay Area for 30 years. Seattle is still instrumental in my life; I have family and numerous friends there and I visit frequently. Its landscape is dear to me and it appears often in my paintings, though the viewer may not notice. It feels like my 'homeland.'
The artists who went before us in the previous 100 years were my first inspirations; the images they made stunned my eyes and my consciousness, carved out the entryway to this massive forest that is artistic expression. I studied art for a few years at the University of Washington and since then have taken art classes or workshops at various venues. I renewed my focus on art in the early 80's and became serious about painting (I had to overcome the fear that Francis Celentano had struck in my heart years before!) I found a mentor in artist/teacher Michael Cookinham at the DeYoung Museum Art School and continued critique sessions with his MICA group for 10 years thereafter. He showed us how to look at painting-our own and others- and to think about what is happening on the canvas. Since then, I have found my greatest teacher to be uncharted time working alone in the studio, analyzing what I've done, reflecting, then back to work. Friendships with fellow artists have also been instrumental in my growth, with special thanks to Joan Stuart Ross.
I am married with one son, now grown. My "boys" have been fully supportive of my art life. Home and family are and always have been important to me. Though I had to do a lot of cramming through the years to juggle the 3 important forces in my life - family, art, employment - they all support one another and I am fortunate to "have it all."
My studio is located at the Hunters Point Shipyard in San Francisco. This plain, rough, quiet, industrial area is perfect for the art process. Here I can focus, sink in to that level of consciousness just below the daily surface, become absorbed in painting, and receive the revelations and the beauty, that it offers. Open Studio is held at Hunters Point Shipyard twice a year, the first weekend in May and the last weekend in October.
Some quotes about the painting process:
"Passion lies between one mark and the next, and also within all of them."
Howard Hodgkin
"....to paint out of my own landscape and find it."
Joan Mitchell
"If I know what I am doing, then I should be doing something else."
Lee Mullican
"Talent is simply a step 1 requirement..it only promises but doesn't usually deliver. What delivers is being at your station, being there, present to do the work."
Richard Ford quoting Raymond Carver
"Art is purposeless play."
John Cage
"Sometimes I return to the studio the next day and I see what I have
done and I ask myself: did I do that?" "What am I working with? It's just colored dirt!"
Philip Guston
"You can waste a year worrying about it or you can get it over with now.
(What are you, a woman or a mouse?)"
Annie Dillard
"If you don't make your poems (or paintings), who will?"
Mary Oliver
"Just keep working"
..says the kind and stony gaze of George Tsutakawa