I entered the art scene in 1950...it was just after the second world war and all of my peers were on the GI bill... I was only eighteen. It was when abstract expressionism was in full swing and Jackson Pollack was splatting paint all over the floor.
It was an exciting time.
From 1952 - 1989, I had 16 solo shows and joined my contemporaries in ground breaking group shows, from the east to west coast and abroad. I worked with oils and watercolors, pastels, etchings and silk screens. My subject matter was literal and symbolic, even though around me, the art world was moving through abstract art to minimal art to Pop art to photo realism.
In the year 1989, I experienced three devastating deaths in my family . My world was turned upside down. I wanted to do something...anything... to stop disease and death. The new age of spirituality and psychic healing had just surfaced. I threw myself head first...into the study of energies. I delved deeply into psychic phenomena and spirituality. I went to 5 different schools and umpteen workshops to learn everything that was out there to learn... and I began working with patients who had aids and cancer. It lasted for10 years...and then I broke.
Slowly, as my own healing took place...I returned to my art. Everything was different. I wanted to express the extreme beauty of life itself...the miracle of creation...the perfection of our universe. I had moved onto 8 acres of land in upstate N.Y. The property was deep in the woods with 2000 ft of riverfront. I began by clearing the trees, creating sweeping lawns and a wild-flower field. I dug two ponds and diverted the river water through them. I planted every imaginable tree and bush...and because I was surrounded with wild turkey and deer...I had to fence in a section for my flowers. I WAS CO- CREATING WITH GOD...the earth had become my palette...
Then the new work began:
I was photographing everything as I went along... I printed my photographs and then collaged them. Next I heat pressed them onto silk and linen, then plexi- glass and wood. They were capturing the mystical quality of the land...but somehow lacked the emotional content of my earlier work.
About a year ago, I started working with the photos on my computer...layering images of my paintings and drawings on top of the landscape photos…digitalizing them and playing with the psychological effects. It allowed me to create images that expressed my thoughts. I began to collage everything online, using people and places as though they were abstract…