Biography

I was born in Seattle when it was a bit more funky and rusty. We moved around a lot growing up. Honolulu, Lake Oswego, Vancouver, Washington, back to Seattle, then Pasadena. I moved back to Seattle in 1980 for the rain (not kidding) and because I had seen paintings at the Francine Seders Gallery ­I didn’t understand, but to which my inner life awakened with memories of my boyhood in the region of Puget Sound. These were by Guy Anderson, Mark Tobey, Morris Graves and others.

I studied drawing and painting in California through the 1970s, held extended residencies in Barcelona and Paris in the 1980s, and since the mid 1990s I’ve been engaged in a passionate study of Asian art. I began using encaustic in 1985, before there were any books or classes on it. With encaustic, I can bring together all of my other methods: papers and inks, fabric, tar, and gold. I draw on multiple lineages of art, culture and spiritual meaning.

In September 2006, I co-curated “Impulse,” a national show of encaustic painting and sculpture at the Portland Art Center. I’ve participated in group exhibits at the Art Gym (Marylhurst University), the Umpqua Valley Arts (2023 Artworks NW Biennial, curated by Arvie Smith), and Portland Institute for Contemporary Art. I had a solo show at Oregon State University in 1995. I’ve taught painting and drawing in Seattle and Portland since the middle 1990s. I led a group of artists on a tour of museums, galleries and artist studios in Barcelona in 2007, and I was nominated for the 2013 Northwest Artist Awards. My work is represented by the William Traver Gallery in Seattle, by i.e. gallery in Edison, Washington, by Cedar Street Galleries in Honolulu, and by Augen Gallery in Portland, Oregon.