Welcome to my art gallery!

I started painting age 10 in private lessons by learning to copy images and develop basic painting skills. However, by high school in the mid 1980s, I was introduced to the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, which changed my world. I fell in love with Van Gogh, which you can probably detect in much of my work to this day. Matisse was another big influence from this era. Later while doing my BFA I learned about modern painters like Georgia O'Keefe and the Expressionists, like Rothko, but also postmodernism. I am also a huge fan of science fiction and fantasy novels, graphics, art, and film, which also often show up in my work. 

I have an extremely keen sense of color and experience the world neurodivergently primarily through vision, often noticing patterns around me that others miss. For my BFA I also majored in photography (back in the old film and darkroom days) and LOVE nature photography. I regularly use my cameras to record and study the world, which often also shows up in my paintings. One of my favorite autistic stims is flower photography, which I can do for hours.(NOTE:  I will be adding photos for download and print-on-demand soon.) 

Today, I combine all this creative life-long experience with my academic research and my love of theory and philosophy, which results in the myriad of styles I explore as each has different purposes and outcomes. I am happy to provide more information about each painting if you are interested-- please reach out!

I have been painting abstract images since the late 1980s but recently have come to understand why-- my neurodivergence! It took creating my unique PhD dissertation research conceptual framework of creative materialism, which fit my way of experiencing and knowing the world, to understand my unique perspective. My images often are what I call "biomorphic" in that there are elements that seem human, animal, geological, or plant-like in form. Of late, I am theorizing "painting as thinking" as I observe myself using my paint process and images to think through problems and ideas. Many of these images are also from my PhD dissertation research or from other arts-based research projects and are material artifacts from studies, making them unique.

I began my painting career at age 10 and landscapes were a regular image choice as my private teacher had me copy images to learn skills. After moving to Colorado in 2011, my interest in painting landscapes returned as I love the unique geology and ecosystems of the desert southwest US. In fact, I did a series of landscapes as part of the Ethics Across the Curriculum conference where I explored my relationship with water here in Colorado. However, landscapes also appear in some of my other research images and abstract images as well. I am inspired by science fiction and fantasy media and create fantastic places. I plan to create more landscapes of the American southwest so check back! 

I did not know it when I was creating and theorizing my PhD dissertation proposal and conceptual framework that I was neurodivergent. But through the process of finishing the degree I now realize I created a unique research methodology that is neurodivergent friendly. In fact, creative materialism is how I experience and understand the world!  The works in this category are artifacts of this process. Painting provides me a means to visually and aesthetically "think" and explore my emotions and neurodivergent culture. Neurodivergent painting is an area I will continue to develop and I welcome feedback from neurodivergent adults on the works.

This series of paintings mixes with some of the other categories but overall contain fantastic, sci-fi, otherworldly, evocative, and even mystical elements or aesthetics. I plan on creating more paintings for this category soon so check back again! 

I have used visual and creative research methods for years (see my portfolio) but did not know it was an actual research methodology called arts-based research or creative inquiry until starting my doctoral coursework at the University of Denver in higher education in 2016 when I met Dr. Bruce Uhrmacher. Paintings in the category are tied to research projects and were often used to understand theories like Thomas Nail's contemporary loop object theory. Uniquely, some of these images are in my actual dissertation and are artifacts of the research. I will continue to work in this category and produce new works so check back!