My work style is best described as folk or self-taught. Each piece is a handmade original carved on white pine boards, then painted with acrylics. I’ve been making my work for 53 years and have produced upwards of 2000 pieces.
My subject matter usually documents places and feelings that are important to me, and I think of my artwork as a “picture diary” or “picture story”. I am known for my pictures of diners and farms, and my work often contains veiled social commentary and metaphor.
My Ithaca home studio is not open for the October Art Trail weekends but you can visit year round by appointment. Please arrange this visit by texting in advance.
Even easier, see me demonstrate carving on Saturdays at my summer studio, booth #3 at the Saturday Ithaca Farmers’ Market. I’m the real thing, a living working artist with woodcarvers mallet in hand.
I graduated from Cornell ’72 with a major in creative writing. One year after graduating my father gave me a painted wood carving he had made of me at the farm where I grew up. I soon started to make painted carvings as well, gave up writing, and morphed into a visual artist.
Although I’ve had no visual arts training, I learned a number of useful skills by building my own house, and during my work in the trades as a signpainter and carpenter. I worked for 30 years as a social worker, and people figure prominently in my work.