Artist Statement:
The goal of my work is to interpret a wide range of literary expression through visual art, thereby adding a new dimension to painting. The literal content includes lyrics, poetry and prayer on the deep and soulful side, and schedules, artificial ingredients, and side effects on the quirky side.
The medium is "Venetian Fresco" a technique I developed with colored Venetian plasters. I first prepare the canvas with an underpainting of colored plaster, then score in guidelines. Depending on the nature of the content, I pencil in the text to allow precise diction, or simply begin to paint the words to ramble on and off the canvas. When the canvas is completely built up with plaster I consider the words of Eugene Delacroix... "One always has to spoil a picture a little bit, in order to finish it." A gloss varnish is applied to the peaks of the texture to create an amplified luster, and occasionally the work is left unvarnished when a matte finish is desirable.
Some of the work falls into an abstract landscape, something that happened accidentally on my first piece. Other paintings are bands of color, or are monochromatic. Most recently elements of the human figure have been a focus, revealing a zoomed in perspective of body and face. These new challenges have taken my work to a new level, as I hadn't expected my medium to create such detail.
Though I wrestle with the importance of legibility, reading the painting to buyers adds a level of intimacy that is rewarding. 
In subtle and surprising ways multiple levels of communication are revealed through my work.