Ideas that have long been gestating inspire my entry into studio art. A resident of Brooklyn, I was a cultural migrant to NYC in my early-twenties. (Scratch just below the surface and you still find a California surfer.) I hold two university degrees: a Bachelor's in Dramatic Literature from U.C. Berkeley, and a Master of Fine Arts in Theatre Design from N.Y.U.'s Tisch School of the Arts. For over three decades I've worked professionally as a Scene Designer in Theatre and Film, with many projects for national and international theatre, opera, and dance companies, as well as Broadway. Currently, I serve as international Scene Design associate for the musical The Lion King. A list of important influences includes: Aeschylus, Eduardo Chillida, Romanesque architecture, Antique glass, Duccio and early Sienese painting, Red and Black Raku pottery, Antoni Tapies, Julius Bissier, Ingres' pencil portraits, the Vatican's Gallery of Maps, Marx Brothers’ comedies, Edo-Mae sushi, and keenly, J.S. Bach. Primary inspirations include: vernacular architecture; music composition; shapes, patterns, textures, movement, and colors in Nature; and old maps. Lifelong heroes include Jacques Cousteau and NASA.
In a sense my works are elaborate constructs, the result of considered invention and distillation. At the same time they are vestiges of an open conversation with materials allowing for – encouraging, really - fortuitous accident. Each work is a record of a pursuit that I would compare to gold mining or pearl diving. Preparation is complex, deliberate, and essential. And the result is usually a surprise, though a surprise that is sought after.