After the upheaval and destruction of the Katrina flood, it was two years before I was able to paint again.  All my creative energies were taken up with repairing our damaged city, our flooded home and my studio, and dealing with the ugliness and anxiety all around me.  Finally in the fall of 2007, the pent-up images in my artist’s soul burst forth, surprising me with the intense color and imagery they portrayed.  I left behind the atmospheric landscapes I am known for and ventured into the world of large, very bright acrylic canvases, abstracting into geometric forms the playful carnival aura of New Orleans. 

I then discovered the excitement of watercolor on Yupo, a slick, plastic-like surface where one can manipulate the paint, producing wonderful textures and super-bright colors.  I soon moved into large paintings that are semi- abstractions of memories and metaphors: bridges, cities, the cracks between dimensions, towers, a sense of space and timelessness and that which is “beyond.”  Then after a workshop in planned abstraction with John Salminen AWS, probably the best of the current watermedia painters, I learned to play with shape and color, producing paintings that are described as strong, bold, and sculptural.  Now it is with great anticipation that I enter my studio, never sure when I start out what the end result will be, but knowing it will always be an adventure, and that my years of training, painting and teaching have give me the tools I need to produce something exciting, beautiful and full of meaning.