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Though born and educated in The United States, I have lived and painted in Europe and Asia for many years. Living abroad has had a major influence on my work. Being an emigrant is basically not being "at home", being separate from the culture surrounding you, and observing it all with an outsider's perspective. This separateness, though sometimes lonely. resulted in a heightened consciousness of so many aspects of life, and has been very useful to me as an artist.
This state of not being "home", not being "One" with the surroundings, created a longing for wholeness, similar to the feeling one has as a small child, unaware of the boundaries between oneself and the world. I've used the egg form in my paintings to express something about this feeling. The egg refers to life's beginnings, when even physically life is not separate within it's self. Though whole, the egg form is depicted as very separate from it's surroundings. This series is called "The Clock Begins", and has a rather surreal feeling. Time measured in the individual life, yet the egg form is placed in space like a planet, giving associations to things, that in our time perspective, seem eternal.
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At the present time I'm painting in The United States, and see a shift in the content of my paintings, toward the familiarity of my surroundings. The "Kaleidoscope" series celebrates the vivid differences, and multi-patterned life that surrounds me here, lively, independent, separate patterns, strong contrasts, yet creating a united wholeness. A phenomena of this country that is one of our national treasures. Returning is similar in feeling to that of a small child being at one with it's surroundings, but significantly different in that one returns "Home" with conscious awareness
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