PASTELS have been my medium of choice for over 20 years. They combine my love of drawing with the lushness of painting, with pastels’ layering effects with the full range of the hues of oils.

The FIGURE – painting the figure has been my love since I started painting over 40 years ago. But it hasn’t been until recently until I have integrated the figure into my paintings so that the figure is fully part of the greater painting, not a figure with a background added.

ROOMSCAPES (interiors) have continued to be my main interest, as they have for over twenty years. Only recently, though, I have added the human presence.  By choosing to portray figures in local institutions, historic restaurants, intimate cafes, grand theatres…and the warm, inviting homes of the city’s residents, I am bringing together my strength as an artist and my love of this city  both which need to survive and thrive.

KATRINA PHOTOGRAPHS                                                       
I spent October, 2005 through March, 2006 taking photographs of the ravages of Katrina as some way for me to deal with the tragedy of the people of the city and my own guilt having had my home sustain only minor damage. What was most moving was that in the beginning, I saw no people, no moving cars, no birds, no vegetation, no sound other than the rustling of debris. This wasteland had no beginning and no end. To document panoramic views of this tragedy was simply too depressing a task for me, nor did it interest me to do that.

My view in life has always been to find the beauty and humanity in what I see. I decided to attempt to find them, if any, in this devastation, by zooming down to a more personal level and photographing small slices of “life. Simple objects could represent enormous loss. The images are universal, yet personal.