GLASS
 I often work with glass, which is a particularly magical medium. Being translucent yet solid, as an invisible boundary, it simultaneously is and isn’t. This reflects well my intention to make manifest subtle philosophical concepts. The kiln work in the studio is itself alchemical and the effect intended for the viewer is none the less so. My work serves as a portal to that which we recognize as absolute. This transportation can be as simple as losing oneself in an intricate colorful flower pattern; or as complex as visually entering a mysterious architectural structure where a non-linear stage setting appears to be casting a spell.
DIGITAL WORK
My current drawing and painting involves recording what is, especially when I am drawing strangers in public. I am not overlaying my message on the subject but the message or mood emerges of it’s own. See more at betweenstops.wordpress.com where I accompany the image with fictional text as a comment on our society and our personal lives in it.
9x9s
Viewing the 9 x9 series reads more like a painting on a wall. Make a statement like “Yield” or another traffic instruction (navigating through life) but in in a primary and basic way. Modern Heiroglyphics made from coloured glass in molds fired and cut and refired until the thickness and stability of the glass feels more like stone than crystal. The surfaces have the warm friendliness of a worn building who has seen time pass. Friendly and wise.

I build carefully crafted art from the common debris of our city. Through wanton use of cardboard, wine corks, maps and old paper, sometimes copper and nice wood, hollow core doors and salvaged hardware, I strive to assemble sturdy, possibly graceful work, some functional some useless, some very participatory, and all heartfelt. In my studio and through my work I explore my history and relationship with place, both as a participant in this American Nation, as well as a complex organism in a biosphere known as the Bay Area of Planet Earth. I also continue to hone my technical skills, offer some fun, and make the best art I can manage. My studio is in the garage of my home in Bernal Heights

Born to a father, a political refugee, imprisoned for his nationality, shot through the chest, saved by a stranger who subsequently bore me. As an infant, homeless, perplexed by the thud of bombs exploding. At puberty, found that I was closest to foreigners, refugees and subversives. Married someone from a different continent, who had suffered at the hands of bigots. Taunted as an enemy alien, arrested for possession of recorded music, separated by authorities from my family, crossing borders illicitly, mounted police trampling me underfoot. My relatives persecuted by the secret police simply because of their relationship to me, and dying at the hands of the regime. Is it any wonder that I discovered release in an engagement with art and pure aesthetics. Is it any wonder that I find myself creating works concerned with politics and social issues.

For more than 30 years I’ve considered myself a weaver. Weaving requires structure, order and balance interlaced with texture and color.

In the last few years I’ve expanded my artistry to include collage, mixed media and assemblage, incorporating weaving into the collage work. Collage and assemblage represent the unknown to me. That is to say, I don’t necessarily know what the piece will look like when I start. which is in contrast to weaving where I have to know what the end result will be before I start.

Creating collage and assemblage offers me the opportunity to explore the not so visible parts of life, the subtle messages woven into and between the unsaid and to express myself in new and creative ways.

Weaving and collage are very different and that is what’s fun about each of the processes.

My work is a reflection of the time in which I am living. History, geography and folklore gathered in my travels are motivating factors. The human condition is described throughout my work. I see artistic value in the abandoned and beauty in the broken whether people or objects. I consciously use cast away items to invent the time and tone in each piece. A variety of artistic means are the vehicle that allows the work to reflect my vision. I think of my work in literary terms as visual poetry. Each piece is self-contained. My intentions are both emotive and personal.

A bit about the weaving process: I create the images with photographs, drawings on paper, and digital tools. The weave structures and fibers differ from piece to piece. They are as significant as the image. I engineer each piece, focusing on the technical specifications, and prepare a digital file. Then I weave a test and I weave the piece. The images emerge from the cloth, line by line (weft by weft). Its magic.

Through my lens, as I travel the world, I strive to share with my viewers a photographic glimpse of its beauty and variations of cultures and traditions.