If you want to catch me in a favorite place, I would probably be part of a landscape somewhere, likely surrounded by animals, domestic or wild. I'm painting, sketching, photographing and quietly observing the light, the sounds, the motions, the smells, the atmosphere, the relationships. This is the very best way I have to inform painting done from life or in my studio.

With each work, I hope to capture an image that says to the viewer, "I've been there, felt that—moments redolent with the scents, sounds, and atmosphere of some special time, place, and memory." Moments, perhaps, like those described by Aldo Leopold, recalling pastures created when ribbons of Eleocharis green sandbars in an August river, or a snow cloaked January landscape when tracks of meadow mice, rabbit, squirrel and skunk mark their passing. Sometimes I get it right.

Over the last 35 years I've had the good fortune to call a few wise and generous sages my mentors. I continue to learn that making art, although it importantly starts with the mechanics of rendering the subject matter and applying the paint, becomes in the end, about making it your own. I find this is an exciting proposition with never ending possibilities assuming we all continue to grow!

Travels to the Southwest,Yugoslavia, Kenya, Tanzania and Canada, as well as throughout the United States have provided me wonderful painting opportunities. Staying home and painting my marsh, my town, my state, have provided me with subject matter just as wondrous.

I graduated in art education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and teach in the Graphic Design/Illustration Program at Madison Area Technical College. This fall I will be teaching a painting workshop at the Peninsula School of Art in Door County. You are all welcome to join my classes and get a glimpse of how I do what I do. For more information visit matcmadison.edu or www.peninsulaartschool.com/workshops.

My paintings have been featured in "American Artist Magazine." They are on exhibit at Milward Farrell Fine Art Gallery in Madison Wisconsin (milwardfarrellfineart.com), the Tamarack Gallery in Stillwater Minnesota (tamarackgallery.com) and in collections throughout the United States.

Quoting the words of Thich Nhat Hanh: "If we practice walking mindfully, being in touch with the earth, the air, the trees, and ourselves, we can heal ourselves, and our entire society will also be healed."