Early in life, I found refuge in the natural world, and it’s where I found the first inspirations for my artwork - whether mosaic or, now, painting. My work is just this side of realistic; I prefer a looser interpretation of reality, an impression in paint, where the voices of the artist, the subject, and the medium harmonize in a kind of musical arrangement where none dominates. Viewers should not have to work too hard to find resonance here.

My current series of paintings, “My Florida Birds,” expresses both my love of birds and my deep sadness about their steady decline in numbers – which I have witnessed myself during the 30+ years I’ve lived in Florida. There are fewer songs in the air, and fewer waders in the marshes, and we are poorer for it. I feel this impending loss viscerally, like a hollow in my core, because I know that when something unique is gone, it can never be replaced. On the canvas, some of the birds are caught in startled motion, looking out at us as if they’ve just been disturbed. Maybe they are asking, “What will you do when we’re gone?”