Artist Statement

As an artist, my primary goal is to create art that elicits an emotional response, The mood I try to convey is one of calmness, serenity, tranquility - perhaps the Japanese word "wa" describes it best. Moments of harmony, peace and balance (the definition of "wa"), are far to rare in our lives but within them lie the seeds of contentment.

Water, a shapeless, colorless substance, makes a beautiful mirror for the shapes and colors around it. Fog is rich in mood; it is atmosphere that creates "atmosphere". Water creates symmetries. Fog tames chaos. Together, or apart, they promote the poetic beauty of simplicity, which leads naturally to feelings of balance and harmony.

My photographs are not documentary in nature. I am not really all that interested in what the scene actually looked like. For me, the photograph is the raw material that I will modify as needed to document how the moment felt. It is not that I believe that I can improve upon nature itself; but the translation of a 3-dimensional world, experienced with all five senses, into a 2-dimensional visual experience requires ... well ... some translation.

My camera is my paintbrush. It is the tool that paints the scene. My computer contains my paints - I use them to set the tone, the color, the contrast, and the mood of my art. With these tools I create my memories of moments of beauty and serenity and then preserve them with archival materials.