Connect What is your favorite type of art to create?

My current work is my favorite because it follows my intent. Like Magritte, I am a visual thinker and ideas that I pursue are linked to concepts borne in the process. Painting is the vehicle that most describes my chosen medium, yet I am drawn to any medium that will serve the best channel of communication. I have large scale assemblages and 3x4 colored pencil drawings. Between are photorealistic oils and woodcut prints. All work invests in visual thinking and is designed to challenge convention

Where do you find inspiration?

Inspiration is generated by what is significant to our beliefs. What we love is layered in the agreements we lay hold of. I aggressively look for what influences people's life decisions and how that builds their belief systems. Art can be a reflection of what inspires people and that is where my inspiration lies. One of my paintings shows five Chinese men squatting in the entrance to a temple, smoking. Their expression say 'this is my temple insitu' or 'I temple where I am.' Very human.

What would you do with $25,000?

Funds such as these would help my wife and me out of debt that spiraled after her stroke. She too is an artist, inspired by iconography, and painting has become her only true outlet. Aside from the debts incurred from loss of income, we would pour any resources beyond those into continued studio rent and supplies. My wife is brilliant, having multiple degrees, and her stroke minimized the abilities she once relied upon. We are adjusting to a new normal. Yet passion in art drives our faithfulness