“When I paint, I’m usually thinking about color and shape and line and how they are informing one another on the canvas. But I am also thinking about these other things, these things that make us human.”

Why are we as humans preoccupied with light? I don’t think I am alone in this. I don’t know a single person who does not love the warmth and beauty of the light from sunshine after a week of cloudy days or the dancing light from a candlestick on the dinner table or the magic of dappled sunshine streaming through the leaves of a forest.

I often start a painting or a series of paintings with a question, and the brush marks, scribbles, glazes, and shapes facilitate the deep dive into those questions, not always revealing answers but supporting my process of contemplation and meditation.

I remember being fascinated with the layers of multi-colored rock, the crevices which held tiny treasures and miniature waterfalls, and the lone trees which pushed through the almost imperceptible cracks in the solid rock to find life.