Many years ago, the late Roy Lichtenstein described my painting as both ‘strong and energetic.’ This compliment has provided me with great inspiration throughout the years.

My style can be described as a minimal approach to geometric abstraction. While my concerns are primarily formalistic, many of the ideas that were central to abstract artists from the early part of the 20th century are often relative to my own work. Malevich, Van Doesburg, and Mondrian, in particular, have had an important influence. More contemporary artists are many but would include Sol Lewitt and Ellsworth Kelly.

The development of a unique approach to the paper cut-out has also had a major effect on the course of my work. In fact, it has provided me with a completely new way of realizing small-scale paintings. It is a method that has evolved over many years and is quite different than the technique that is more commonly used. In contrast to paper shapes — one being placed upon another — the forms cut from painted paper are actually fitted together much as they would be in the process of ‘marquetry’ — most often associated with woodworking. The result is a flat surface that is highly desirable. Along with other advantages, it is a procedure that provides an accurate small study that can then be used as a maquette for a much larger painting using a more traditional approach. The maquette often becomes a significant work itself and can have an intimate quality that might be impossible on a larger scale.

One of my primary goals is to achieve a purely visual experience devoid of any reference to mimesis. Instead, it is only about the work itself. It is about form and a celebration of color and light and texture. It is about balance and imbalance. It is the edge that exists as one form defines another. It is about the implied form that, at times, seems to extend beyond the edge of the picture plane or can even challenge the notion of an additional dimension. It is about harmony and discord. And particularly with works that involve multiple panels, there is often a rhythm that is more typically an experience that would be found in music. And so it is about such elements that can successfully come together in an expression that is based on the formalistic and purely aesthetic aspects that comprise content and determine merit.

The understanding of the ‘cut-out’ in contrast to the approach that is typically described as ‘collage’ is important. In ‘The Cut-Outs of Henri Matisse’ John Elderfield writes “Collage, to which the cut-out technically relates, had traditionally meant the use of cut-out papers, among other ‘foreign’ elements, in what remained in essence paintings, or in the case of papiers collés, drawings. Moreover, by virtue of its juxtapositional form, collage had stressed - either explicitly or implicitly - the distinction between the world of art (which received these foreign elements) and the world of external reality (from which they derived), even to the point of making this distinction the very focus of meaning of the art itself. Matisse’s cut-outs emerge from an entirely different, indeed opposite, sensibility.”  

In 1996, I began experimenting with the substitution of a small knife and painted paper for what had previously been a more traditional way of drawing using pen and ink. Instead of a black line to indicate form - I gained the ability to actually ‘make’ form. So form became simply the form itself - no longer a depiction or expression as it might be in a more standard drawing or painting process.

At first my cut-outs followed the simple idea of cutting out various paper shapes that would then be adhered to a contrasting background. This can be described as similar to the original approach used by Matisse as early as the 1930’s and has been subsequently used by artists as diverse as Joseph Albers and Bridget Riley.

As my interest in geometric abstraction has evolved over the years, so has the actual cut-out technique. Instead of the paper shapes being layered one upon another, the new method allows me to mount them onto a background in a process similar to marquetry - most commonly used in woodworking. So there is no overlap. Instead the individual forms join one another to produce a flat surface. This, in turn, can become a maquette for a much larger work and thus the surface provides a more accurate version of, for example, the flatness of a painting on canvas. Also, since I often work with geometric configurations that incorporate optical suggestions of a third dimension - the flat surface becomes highly desirable.

When used as a maquette, there are other benefits as well. I find that with many of my compositions, the ability to study different variations is of great value. The cut-out provides an effective tool to accomplish this goal especially in regards to time and the economy of material. Essentially, it is a small painting that has the potential to provide an intimate quality that would be more commonly experienced with drawings and prints. Often the cut-out becomes a significant work itself.