On trips all over the world visited during residencies in Kenya, New Zealand, Turkey, Finland, Costa Rica, Australia and others, and teaching and volunteer assignments in Thailand, China, Nicaragua, Peru, Africa, India, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Nepal, I make books that reflect my various reactions to both the diversity and universality of their people and places. Books have emerged that were constructed from fabric, floppy disks, tin cans, rocks and branches, clay shards, bones, metal, and other juxtaposed-things, which questioned the definition or concept of a “book.”  Through books, I continue mixed media approaches developed in previous artwork.  Along with a mastery of the craft of binding and printing; years of studying painting, graphic design, digital imagery, and poetry; the intimacy of my Book Art narratives have crystallized and matured, affording a raw and vibrant subject matter which is playful, intellectual, journalistic and emotional.

In recent years, my work has conceptually transformed, incorporating items from the environment that function as metaphors for the passages of life; i.e., youth to old age; relevance to obsolescence; tradition vs. new ideas, as well as, longevity and wisdom, and fear and insecurity about the future.  I believe that art can convey something special about this later period of life or a change in the environment. I have become a disciple of Nature Journaling, leading a group in California and journaling on all my travels to better observe the environment I find myself in.

Today, I continue to create distinctive art that paradoxically discloses both a physical and metaphysical journey. These themes are explored through documentation of personal history, a time-place continuum, realizing similarities and differences across cultures and places, and consideration of nature’s dynamic concepts.