Artist’s Statement

In Concerning the Spiritual in Art, Wassily Kandinsky wrote that it is the spiritual role of the artist to bring light into the world and expel some of the darkness that exists here.  Like Kandinsky I am interested in making work that communicates joy.  By bringing more joy into the world I am increasing the world’s stock of goodness, as joy and laughter serve as vehicles of healing.  Like the Expressionist painters, I process my experience through my imagination and reveal my inner nature in my work.  I use animal imagery and curvy lines, and my emphasis is on whimsy and playfulness.  Animals are seen in this society as innocents, as are children and the pastoral.  The Expressionist artists, especially: Franz Marc, Paul Gauguin and his friend Emile Bernard, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and Jean Dubuffet, all made use of this connection in their art, as do children’s books today.  Our instinctive joyful response to curviness, especially upward-directed curves, is innately tied up with our reaction to the smile, which is a curve.   When my work makes me laugh it brings me great joy and I hope that others will also take delight in my work and have their spirits uplifted.