ARC Museum - My Training as a Painter

Y TRAINING AS A PAINTER BEGAN during the time that I was working toward an MFA at the University of California at Los Angeles, studying under instructors who were still reacting against the "confines" of academia. During my graduate years, I studied under Richard Diebenkorn, whose contributions, ironically, are just now coming to light, following the years of my own academic study. I've returned to those very large brushes and expansive strokes to block in a painting. This enables me to concentrate on obtaining a sense of expressive movement in a composition.

As my studies at the university concluded, I felt an aesthetic restlessness to explore other possibilities. The Los Angeles art scene at that time was still exalting itself amidst a vast arena of open spaces and a freedom to quest after an "originality," that ultimately became a sterile intellectual visual game.

Upon release from that influence, I traveled to Europe. As I traced my way through the museums, all the naturalist and classical art I had been exposed to during my study of art history suddenly became fired with life. I felt my feet beginning a new journey down a different path. For me, the door into a separate reality was opened by an astonishing alchemy that occurred when a perfectly flat surface was transmuted into an illusionist space that seemed real enough to walk through. This new world was defined by light touching form, form emerging from the penumbra. The phenomenon itself, the act of choreographing light, told the tale of the drama of being. It elevated the whole experience into a purity of abstraction, reminiscent of musical motifs. I felt my soul being extricated from myself and transported into each painting I was viewing.

I returned to America after only a year and concluded that I decided I wanted to illustrate books. At the time, it seemed the best place to be if I wanted to paint naturalistically, and to tell a story to a modern world still dominated by the Avant Garde in fine arts.

My heroes emerged from the Golden Age of illustration, and they were all academically trained. This meant, of course, that they all had a strong foundation - a training in the classical tradition based on hundreds of years of inherited knowledge and technical evolution. I taught myself and worked as an illustrator for a good many years. I developed skills in perspective, architectural rendering. I learned how to form a convincing world through research and imagination -- imbuing a character with empathy for his or her experiences as depicted in the story. My vision, my purpose was to stand up to the quality of those who were a part of that timeless era of quality.

Creative work for me has always been in its highest form the Work; that which one accomplishes in order to understand the inner self with utmost honesty. The endeavor eventually resulted in a confrontation with an inescapable truth, I lacked the classical foundational training that gave such grace and relevance to the work of my predecessors. In the words of a friend, mentor and creative giant: "There is only one school, and that is the Old School." I finally discovered that school in Florence. I have been studying for several years at the Florence Academy of Art under the directorship of Daniel Graves.

The more I study (a lifetime occupation), the more understanding I have been able to glean; understanding of how much profundity can be realized on so many levels. Today, my vision is to imbue every paint stroke, every value and shape with a sense of life and purpose. This, as they weave themselves together, taking on a pictorial relationship that tells a story on a deeper level. I am still attracted to the narrative, but I also find a sublime poetry in the dance of light, even when painting a still life.

There is still so much to explore -- internal journeys reflecting external visual cues. I know I am working in the right place here in Italy. It is a land where the artistic perspective flows spontaneously and naturally, just as it has for thousands of years. Nothing has changed. Here are unlimited sources of inspiration, and the humbling reminders of where one stands in the face of eternity. With the advent of the Renaissance, Florence became the center of the humanist revival. Today, it is in Florence that my creative soul has found a home.