About
the Artist
As far back as I can remember,
I have always loved art. At
the early age of six, I remember how much I enjoyed sitting down and drawing
pictures. In elementary school, I attended art classes at the Milwaukee
Art Institute and remember completing a drawing of a streetcar. Later
on as a student at Bay View High School, I designed program covers, painted
backdrops for stage productions and won recognition in several scholastic
art competitions. Becoming aware of traditional art, I studied the painters
of the Hudson River School and great masters, particularly Millet, Rembrandt,
and Turner. These artists still inspire the art I enjoy to this day.
When I was in the Army, stationed
in Korea, I was an illustrator for the 7th Division Artillery Battalion.
I completed several murals and paintings, including a Korean landscape
which was one of the top three among U. S. troops in the Far East. After
the service, I attended Wisconsin State College (now, University of Wisconsin
- Milwaukee) studying Art Education with renowned teachers Robert Von
Nuemann and Joseph Friebert.
From 1960 to 1998 I worked in
the museum field: a Background Artist for the Illinois State Museum; Chief
Exhibits Designer at the Rochester Museum and Science Center in New York;
and Assistant Director at the Milwaukee County Historical Society in Wisconsin.
During these years, I continued
to paint "traditional city views and landscapes' for private collections,
law firms, insurance companies and other businesses.
Since retiring from the museum
field in 1998, my art has evolved in a new direction...toward more imaginative
landscape subjects, almost entirely as watercolor acrylics. These "imaginative
landscapes" often employ new compositional strategies derived from a variety
of photographic records, including the Farm Security Administration files
of the 1930's and 40's. My most recent paintings evolve from an interest
in the use of architecture along with the figure as an integral and vital
element in the depiction of a particular place...the union of figures
and setting.
I feel that with each painting
I create, presents a unique challenge to evolve into the means of enlivening
my landscapes...a sense of place will connect with each viewer.
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