Artist's Statement

My interest in art has been a lifelong journey that has allowed me to blend many interests and mediums. Throughout my childhood, I enjoyed drawing and painting. A fascination with the natural world led me to study science and mathematics. I prepared for a career as a mathematics/science teacher first at UCLA then UC Davis. My interest in art was revived in my 3rd year at UCLA where I studied art and design. I spent a summer working in a print shop before I began teaching in South Central Los Angeles. During that time I was exposed to the process of printing (offset and xerography), photo reproduction, and binding.

In the summer of 1976, I studied ceramic sculpture at UC Davis with David Gilhooly and later with Robert Arneson. I began to exhibit my sculpture in 1977. In 1978, I purchased my first 35 mm camera to take photographs of my art and I soon became interested in photography as an art form. When I purchased a computer, I became interested in editing and printing photographs for different purposes.

My photographs are primarily made from scans of 35mm slides or transparencies. I use both an Olympus OM-1n and a Canon Rebel 2000 with a variety of lenses. I sometimes use a Kodak digital camera. My photocollages include frames from movies, filmstrips, video captures, scanned drawings, paintings, objects, and photocopier prints. My photographs and graphics have been in restaurants, galleries, museums, newspapers, and books. My Muffler Man photos and graphics were used by Bill Griffith in one of his Zippy the Pinhead comics, appeared (Ken Burns-style) in the Discovery Channel’s “World’s 10 Best Roadside Attractions,” and won the First Annual Money Talks Tacky Advertising Column Filler Award in the San Francisco Chronicle. My efforts in the above ground art world have sometimes been praised, largely ignored, and censored (once in Lincoln, California).

My life as an underground artist has been pure joy. I have participated in the Mail Art world since the mid-80’s. It has allowed me to develop concepts, network with artists all over the world, and to develop new communication skills as technology progresses. Ideally, this world is democratic, collaborative, devoid of commercialism, and pro-creativity. My collaborative efforts with artist/author John Held, Jr. led to the “Back to the Russian Futurists” show at the Mayakovsky Museum in Moscow, Russia in 2003 as well as other venues in Russia, USA, and Germany. Our collaborative works have also appeared on Russian and American television, the Internet, and in print.

I don’t care for high art/low art, digital/analog, primitive/high-tech, or commercial/noncommercial considerations. All of them have something to offer. Subject matter has largely been autobiographical and all over the map. Decades of looking through microscopes, telescopes, and cameras has given me a particular set of visual predilections. Editing video, copier art, photographs, and sound files has given me a way to deal with my interests, inner life, and reality.