ONCE AGAIN

Bio:

To be honest, I was never that interested in art. I didn’t take it in school, never signed up for lessons, and never invested a dime in private instruction. So yes, I’m completely self taught.

My interest started when a girlfriend dragged me to a show at a private gallery. I remember thinking, “I could probably do this.” So I did. Eight months later, I had my first show.

Limited success came quickly. I started winning awards and grants and participating in numerous exhibitions. The City of Vancouver and the Province of British Columbia purchased work. It looked like things were rolling.

By the end of the seventies, though, I hit a wall. I wasn’t making real money, and worse, the work wasn’t getting better. I felt like I was turning into an artisan instead of an artist. So I stopped.

I stopped for 45 years.

In 2020, I picked up a brush again.

Artist Statement:

I’ve always said I’m a better editor than I am a painter. My process is simple: keep hammering away at something until it becomes an image I’d actually hang on my own wall. If I’m not interested in looking at it, why should anyone else be?

That approach means I throw away a lot of paintings. I’m fine with that.

What I’m not fine with is when people call my work photographic. If I could tell the whole story with a camera, I wouldn’t have bothered to learn how to paint. These images are built, revised, and wrestled into existence. Time is the ultimate currency.

To paraphrase Diane Arbus, I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn’t paint them.