Most everyone loves a garden. Walking through a botanical garden, untouched woodland or any place where one can get close to plants will open the receptors to absorbing beauty.  It is an open invitation to the outdoors and gives our minds and souls a period of relaxation and reflection.  Here we can feel the changing seasons and the cycle of life most acutely.
 
My own lush and beautiful garden is a work in progress and is often the subject of my paintings as are the nearby woods, fields, and ravines.  I enjoy the surprising randomness and the careful orchestration as well as the minute detail and great variety.  Sometimes my work is about what is underfoot or what is in the distant landscape. At other times it is about particular plants that have great presence and big personalities.

Being immersed in nature to this degree forces me to observe it very closely and over time to see subtle changes occurring as the climate warms.  There seem to be extended periods of drought, increasing winds as well as different insects migrating north.

There is convincing evidence of this phenomenon in the writings of Rachel Carson SILENT SPRING, Maude Barlow BLUE COVENANT, Timothy Flannery WEATHER MAKERS,  Al Gore AN INCONVENIENT  TRUTH, James Hoggan  CLIMATE COVERUP as well as the profound words of Alberta’s Dr. David Schindler, and Nobel Nominee Shiela Watts Cloutier who speaks about the right to be cold.   Dr. David Suzuki has been speaking to this problem throughout his life. For me, reading about this issue, has changed many of my gardening and painting practices.  Artistically this has given me a parallel subject matter.

Using painted paper shapes (torn, folded origami style, shredded, or crushed) as a metaphor for weather forces seems to be a way of expressing this idea.  It is also a nod to the diminishing forests and the effect this has on life on this planet.  Weather is ephemeral but its effects are very real.  Who can see carbon monoxide or the jet stream?  Origami Butterflies and Frogs are powerful symbols for me.  Butterflies are now thought to the proverbial canary in the coal mine species.  This is very disturbing because insects account for more than half of the known species on the planet.  The frog and particularly the golden toad from Costa Rica’s Cloud Forest is thought to be one of the first known extinctions caused by global warming.  This work is experimental and abstract and I hope conveys gentle but emotional observations.

Biography: My studies at the U of A, UBC and New York University resulted in a B.ED., B.F.A., and a Masters of Visual Art.  I’ve taught at all levels.  I’ve had numerous solo exhibitions at the Front Gallery in Edmonton and have shown in Vancouver , Calgary, and Toronto.  My work appears in many private collections as well as numerous public ones.  Some of these include: Alberta  Art Foundation, Nova Corp., Suncor, U of A Special Collections and U of A Medical Center.    Painting has been my life’s work and pleasure.