BEHIND THE BRUSHES

 

             For years now, in clubs, I have been sketching performing jazz musicians, filling sketchbooks with gesture drawings of these artists making jazz.  Using these drawings as a starting place I abstract from them often employing a multipoint perspective and perspectives from different moments to give visual expression to the movement and connectedness of the music.

 

             Jazz is America’s most important contribution to international culture and it is my hope that my work contributes in some way to the appreciation of jazz.

 

             I am interested in music of all cultures and in the human figure moving through music in dance.  It is my intention in my artwork to create a figurative, sensual and visual art form.

 

             My baseball work derives from summer nights of the New York Penn League watching short season rookie league baseball in upstate New York and western Massachusetts.  Sketching these apprentice ballplayers in congenial settings such as Wahconah Park in Pittsfield, Massachusetts and Demashkie field in Oneonta, New York, I have developed a growing fascination with the visual beauty, the swift motion and complexity of this game.

 

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