ARTISTS STATEMENT
I never had a strong impression about what to express when I initially began oil painting in my earlier years. Maybe I was lacking confidence or my views were restricted by my perception of creativity when it involved my artwork, nevertheless I remained within the boundaries of duplicating the realistic styles of the old Masters, ironically it continues to be my comfort zone unto this day.
My encompassing survey of the art world began when I enrolled at the IAIA in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Although I was not the resilient student in the Art History classes, the slide presentations of art through time is probably the most overwhelming element of influence contributed to broadening my perspective of realism. Several years ago I recognized that while realism can never be attributed to any one artist but it is one channel of many techniques used for depicting an expression through art, there is the possibility of emphasizing a unique expression in realism that is uncompromisingly genuine when focusing on historical content. You become the storyteller, the advocate, and security and production director of that specific scene of a particular event in time. It could be the argument of every art piece of every style in two dimensional designs since the discovery of the first cave paintings, but to catch the inspiration and transfer it to a realistic scene for the first time in the history of mankind, and induce the viewer to wander into an environment inhabited by the original occupiers from a western era gone by, I feel is justifiably a focal point the artist can claim as his/her own. The line of reasoning of practical rendering is the factual event blending into the depiction.
My work has been displayed in Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Montana, New Mexico, New York, South Carolina, Texas, Washington and Wyoming. The statistical evaluation for my website reveals the International exposure of my artwork in 53 countries include: Argentina, Austria, Australia, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chili, China, Columbia, Côte d’Ivoire (Republic of),Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Poland, Romania, Russian Federation, Serbia, Singapore, Slovak Republic, Spain, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Trinidad, Taiwan, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Vietnam and Yugoslavia.
In recent years my originals have been juried in several of the major Art competitions. In 1993 I participated in the International annual Arts For The Parks juried competition held in Jackson Hole, WY and was recognized and selected in the top 100 paintings from among 1,500 entries. For my participation in this show, I also received the Award of Excellence from the National Park Academy of the Arts.
The highlight of my artistic career to date: has been to have a couple of my pieces to hang in the same exhibition alongside the masterpieces of renowned Western artists George Phippen, Ray Swanson, Robert Shufeldt, CM Russell, Frederick Remington, Olaf Weighorst, Howard Terpning and others. A close second is being the only Arizona Native American artist chosen for the Visions of Arizona art exhibition in the House of Representatives, commemorating the state's 2012 Centennial Celebration. The exhibition was conceived by House Majority Whip, Representative Debbie Lesko and developed through a partnership between the Arizona House of Representatives, the Arizona Commission on the Arts and the Arizona Art Alliance.
