Welcome to my website.

Let me tell you a little about my painting practice, my paintings, and a little about me. My painting practice began in 1969 at the University of Colorado. Painting was a choice for me, not a talent. I intuited that painting provided a structure that was flexible enough to contain a wide range of personal and public interests. This interest led to the further study of painting at Pratt Institute. Through the years, in different mediums, in different scales, in different imagery, with different motivations I have used paintings to engage with the interplay of cognition, sensation, and affect.

Paintings hover about, unattached to their referents.  They differ, in time, reference, and ambience, from film and photography. They welcome their viewers through their visual impact and, like ghosts, haunt them through their visual omissions. They conjure an absence, which ferments attachments and invites future visitations.

This site includes photographs of paintings that I have made over the past 15 years. Reoccurring associations are grouped within the titles: Volts & Vines; Scripts; Ghosts; Fissures; Turbulence; and Utterances.  The imagery within these works comes mostly from my history as a painter and from forces at play in the world. I’ve included my exhibition record for those interested.

My painting practice informed my work as an art educator. While working with secondary students in Pittsburgh, I developed an interest in curriculum development. This led to doctoral studies at Penn State and a position as professor of art education at Kutztown University. I am presently retired from teaching. Some of the remains of that work can be found in a textbook that I authored, Experience Painting, a Davis textbook for secondary art students. My scholarly research, history and philosophy of art education, are included on this site for those of you who are interested in such things. Also includes are a list of professional accomplishments.

Photo credits: Wolfgang Schwan