As an artist, nature has always been my inspiration. Before coming to the mountains of Western North Carolina, I was known primarily for a series of meditative, zen inspired drawings called "Pieces of the Universe", but I had never been a landscape painter. In fact, much as I admired the genre, I had always felt a vague dissatisfaction. I was always conscious of being separate from the scene in the frame, conscious of being "over here", and the image . . . "over there". Shortly after my arrival, I realized that all the organized beauty of traditional landscape painting had nothing to do with my experience.
I remembered a phrase I'd heard many years ago - "the divine messiness of nature: as I found myself utterlly immersed in nature, in the constant surprises, in the abundant life and the ever present processes of death and renewal. When I cease any attempt to impose my expectations, my idea of what earth and earthly experience should be, when I virtually disappear into nature, however it presents itself, I see a vision of truth more beautiful than any I could imagine. It reveals itself in countless ways, in a startling shaft of golden light on a chilly gray day, the golden leaves of a treacherous thorny vine on the muddy edge of a stream or the unexpected sight of my son, half hidden in the fog on a mountaintop. When the realization struck, a flood of creative energy was released. These experiences affected me in ways so mysterious and profound, it never occurred to me to paint them small.
I have always believed that the most an artist can offer in their work is the question: "Have you seen this?" Through our work we share one piece of the mystery of the world which has been illuminated for us.
Whether we are aware of it or not we all stand on the razor's edge between the eternity that came before us and the eternity beyond. Our entire life is just a temporary earthly visitation. And all of it, exquisitely contained in this moment of our existence
It is the love of this vision of truth found in nature - the intimacy and the immediacy of a momentary glance, that is the inspiration for my work.
