About the Artist

Hailing from the coal fields of West Virginia, I spent my youth seeing the world through a veil of dust and soot. Yes, clouds of dust from unpaved roads, soot from smoke-choked chimneys, and layers of fine coal dust that had traveled for miles to claim squatter’s rights on every rooftop, sidewalk and porch. Breaking from this gray mode, I was compelled to paint with new eyes. Today, my paintings are often bold, intense, and pristine in color. The greatest joy for me in painting is the manipulation of color. I want my audience to see the world neither as purely as nature presents it, nor in the drabness in which man has built it, but through my own sometimes unpredictable pathways of color.

With an insatiable interest in art, I have attended classes in drawing, painting, design, printmaking, and art history at various institutes: George Mason University, Northern Virginia Community College, and at The Art League in Alexandria. Travels to see great works of art have taken me to museums in many countries in Europe and from coast to coast in the U.S.

In northern Virginia I was fortunate to serve in many capacities associated with art: Show judge for the League of Reston Artists; gallery director at The Art League in Alexandria; student advisor, catalog editor, and computer programmer for The Art League School; and past gallery director, exhibits chairman, and volunteers chairman for the Springfield Art Guild, as well as guest speaker for an area art guild.

My artworks have been selected for the permanent collections of many businesses and corporations, such as, the Georgia Power Company, Atlanta; the National Institute of Health, Bethesda, MD; the Acura Dealership in Centreville, VA; Levendale Hebrew Geriatric Center & Hospital, Baltimore, MD; Hilltop Sand and Gravel Company, Alexandria, and others. My artworks have also found their way into many private collections in both Europe and the U.S.

Awards include those granted by former Washington Post art critic, Michael Welzenbach, and 20th Century art appraiser and expert for the National Gallery of Art, Linda Kaplan, among other awards. A special honor was my being selected, by a jury of three independent judges, to occupy studio space in one of the most successful art centers in the country, the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, VA. The judgment was made solely on the merit of the artwork presented.