About

My work is abstract or semi-abstract and is substantially influenced by my interest in patterns found in the natural environment and scientific imagery.

Inspirations range from the macro scale—patterns created by the interplay of geographic features, land use and geology as shown on maps, aerial photos, and satellite imagery—to the stunning close-ups of minerals, insects, and cell tissues revealed under an electron microscope.

My fascination with aerial imagery goes back to my early childhood in Germany. My parents had an aerial photo showing a house on the outskirts of town surrounded by fields, rivers, lakes, roads, and forests and I remember the moment when my mind resolved the structure as our home and the adjacent landscape features as my extended playgrounds.

When I first started to paint, I was consumed with trying to produce realistic looking trees. And while trees are still thematically related to my current work, my style has become less and less representational focusing mainly on shape and color. At the same time, I have gradually moved from smaller to larger formats which allows me to incorporate scale as yet another composition element.

I love working with all types of media but prefer acrylic and oil for my larger paintings. My smaller works lend themselves to ink, gouache and watercolor. I also enjoy printmaking and use this medium to explore compositions that combine representational and abstract themes with often highly distorted perspectives.

My creative process typically begins with the awareness of a particular color combination or shape and then trying to capture the essence of these characteristics in a balanced composition. While the end result is almost different from what I originally set out to do, the marks and overall qualities of my work do reflect the original kernel of inspiration. In the past, 

Artists who influence my work are numerous and include German Expressionists Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Erich Heckel, and Paul Klee; New York Abstract Expressionists including Willem de Kooning and Helen Frankenthaler; San Francisco Bay Area Figurative artists, especially Richard Diebenkorn, Elmer Bishoff, David Park, Joan Brown, and Nathan Olivera; printmakers Ando Hiroshige and Katsushika Hokusai; and just about every contemporary artist.