Art means something different to everyone. Creativity takes many diverse forms, and I've explored various ways of practicing it and finding ways to express it in my work. Sometimes it's better not to think about it too much, but to let your hand and senses take over in a kind of magical, intuitive way. It's about searching and finding, and it's a process. I know I'm in trouble when I'm worried about the finished product, because that restricts the flow of ideas and takes me away from the moment, from the exploration, the possibilities, and from what the piece is trying to tell me. The work itself informs my decisions... when I'm open to what it's saying. Should I use blue or green or bright cadmium yellow? The painting knows which will work best. Every color has a different story to tell, the character of each line. Every medium has its place.

If there's a common theme here, it's about nature and how it informs my life. Living in Montana helps with that. I'm not sure it would be as true if I were still in the city, but it might be. My deep concern for the environment and my observation of how our culture treats it intensified when I was in art school in New York. I became interested in the early religions that had feminine dieties because I noticed the correlation between peoples' gods and how they related to their world. The cultures who honored the feminine also loved the earth, holding it in great reverence. The same is true today.

My decision to study film came out of two main points: a way to integrate many of my skills and interests into one medium, as well as a desire to interject more about my concerns into my work.
I feel it's an artist's job to try to inform as well as delight. (Milton Glaser said that!)

Still, it's nice to be able to make art for the sheer joy of it alone; to come to a canvas with paint and brushes, without trying to say anything in particular or do more than simply be in the moment, making something beautiful for its own sake,
you and your work at one with the world. Beauty also has its place.