Artist’s Biography

“Anybody sensitive is an artist.”   – Henri Cartier-Bresson

An Oregon native, I grew up in difficult times and outside the mainstream of America. My family was often homeless due to alcohol and mental illness, and our lives often seemed to wallow in violence and addiction. We lived in a car a lot, and so there’s a family joke about being from Bel Air but in our case, it was a 1956 Chevy Bel Air, copper and cream-colored.I slept on the back window deck when I was little. At some point after one of my sisters escaped, I graduated to sleeping on the back seat. I wrote a tiny bit more about those times here.

Perhaps my never-ending search for the meaning of existence stems from those times. My mother Lauretta was a saint who was beloved by thousands of locals over the years – a result of her selfless service.  And my sister Judy followed in her footsteps. I too wanted to be like my mother but instead often wound up treading my father’s troubled path.

In any case, my dramatic early life shaped who I am and the stories themselves can be rather hard to take – and part of why I suffer from PTSD, gender identity disorder and depression to this day – but this page is about my life as it relates to art, not my suffering. I have tried to overcome all of the bad things and while some still haunt me, I prefer to NOT dwell on them.

When I was eight years old my father committed suicide. He shot himself in the head – in that very car pictured above. I never got to see the body or go to the funeral. It wasn’t allowed. I think my father’s ashes became the property of the state. I’ll never know the story.

I drew and painted people & landscapes in addition to abstracts, mostly pretty but innocuous things. Occasionally some of my art would cause some worry – Satan Claus for instance – but I managed to survive the counseling and the fretting. Art was my escape from this world and having been forced out of wall-based art I turned to more legitimate expression.

As a child I spent every free moment drawing and painting. At that age art may have been an anesthetic but it never crossed my mind to make it a career. If I had thought of such a thing I’m sure I would have been told it was a stupid idea. Also, I’ve never been terribly interested in being “good” by some academic standard nor have I sought out someone to teach me how to do things “right” – instead I have only followed my own inner path… and we all know where that leads.

In Junior High I fell in love with photography, thanks to one father figure replacement, science teacher Burford Wilkerson. Thanks, dad. …My earliest work was with my beloved Polaroid. Since we were a very poor family, however, I didn’t get to experiment as much as I wanted. Nevertheless, I still managed somehow to take hundreds and hundreds pictures – probably none of which survived. We still had to move around a lot and as with childhood, there was nothing I ever owned that I got to keep. Ever.

I have always had an overactive need to discover meaning and purpose…. I remember how, on my fourth birthday, I sat on a curb contemplating what it meant to have lived four years already -and wondering how many more there would be! I got my first Bible school diploma at age 11. Then during my teens I became very interested in alternatives such as paranormal research and phenomena. I read voraciously and took correspondence courses whenever I could find them.

 I attended Northwest Bible College and United Theological Seminary. When I needed some more job skills, I attended Western Medical College. There was a period where I pastored a church. I was even a wedding photographer’s assistant for a while.

Art continues to be a source of meaning and fulfillment, however artificial and temporary. There is a certain duality within my work and that reflects the duality within me. Abstraction and impressionism, fantasy and reality, male and female – all colliding and forming possibilities new and different.

So where are we? From here, my intention is to continue with my work in the many areas of painting and photography, as well as keeping my street creds as a generalist and painter of Oregon. And should you be wondering, I will not let down those who have invested in my work. I feel I owe it to those who collect my work to do everything I can to ensure future value. People who choose to own my art are my family.

Am I a successful artist? I don’t know. I am always striving yet I realize that success in art is as much a state of mind as a reality. Nevertheless, I have been in a a gallery from time to time and there are a few collectors who seem to like my work. On the other hand, the older i get the less I seem to care about what others think of me.

Homeless no longer, I often prefer to feel free and unencumbered – and ironically now I have become more like my mother: a caretaker for family members who need me, and a feeder of feral cats. I don’t feel like I belong anywhere; I belong to whatever I am doing in the moment. You see, for me, home is where my art is.

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Projects/Themes/Work

Abstract Expressionism in Black & White a Pollock-inspired series of large format paintings using drip, spray and other action techniques, exploring the neural space of abstract expressionism without resorting to color. An ongoing series commenced in 2007 and found here on this site.

Oregon Natural A series of impressionist paintings,drawings and photographs depicting the natural beauty of Oregon. The paintings/drawings portion of this body of work include watercolors, oils, pastels, graphite drawings plus a few experimental India ink works in the abstract impressionist style I learned from my teacher Domenic DiStefano, with additional influences from the works of Homer and Degas. Ongoing work since 2002. Some of my impressionist work may be viewed online at The Painter of Oregon Gallery.

Mobile Photography – It was inevitable I suppose that the ever-present companion would become a tool of my art… I’m talking about my phone. I’ve spent a great deal of time studying iPhoneography and mobile photography, and now I’m ready to offer a few selected works of art for your approval.

The Feral Life – A photo documentary project on the lives of real feral cats and their struggle to survive. All photography in this series is done within two feral cat colonies on the Oregon coast. This work is naturalistic, raw and gritty. There are no studio shots or set-up poses, only real life – as it is. Currently this body of work is available as a calendar and forthcoming book, and some is documented at the Feral Cat Rescue Project. My feral cat documentary photography work was recently featured at the Center For Fine Art Photography in Colorado.

Rural Street Photography –  I haven’t done as much of this lately, but I do enjoy depicting only ordinary people living the most ordinary lives; on the streets, of small towns, in the markets of rural America, on the boardwalks and beaches of tiny tourist traps – captured candidly and silently. Really, it was at least partially inspired by the work of  America’s greatest unknown street photographer, Vivian Maier.  – someone I discovered right after John Maloof discovered her, and I promoted her work relentlessly after than. John doesn’t know it, but a lot of people heard of her (and him) because I nagged them about it. Anyway, a million people have street photography projects going in urban target-rich environments; so I figured country people deserve attention, too! Continuing hit-or-miss project since 2009 and partially covered here. Street photography is a type of documentary photography that depicts people’s lives as they are lived in public spaces. Sometimes there is a fine line between street(public) portraiture and straight street photography and I straddle that line on a daily basis.