Statement
I have been working with wildlife as my subject matter for about 12
years. I started it full time when I left my teaching job at the
University of Dayton. As a free-lance illustrator with my wife, Jean, as the
Creative Director at Antioch Publishing, I was offered a wildlife
bookmark project. I enjoyed this project so much more than the illustration I
had been doing, so I decided to devote all my time to wildlife -
specifically exotic and/or endangered animals. I wanted this new direction to
have more validity than simply the rendering of an image for the
purpose of illustrating a story or decorating a product.
In my work I try to maintain focus on the animal itself. The animal is
the star - its beauty and its aesthetic is what I try to convey to the
viewer. Realism with some stylization is important, but I am not going
for photo realism. Having done and still sometimes doing abstract art,
my concern with paint and my medium still apply. I want the viewer to
see and appreciate the painted stroke much as one would an impressionist
painting. The realism comes from a compilation of visual clues. In most
of my wildlife paintings I use light sources to try to push the
aesthetic of the animal's texture - their fur or feathers, etc.