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Artist Bio

I am a native of Kentucky and currently live in Corpus Christi, Texas. I received a B.A. from Eastern Kentucky University in 1980 with a double major of German and Russian.

I began to experiment with developing my own abstract art after experimenting with altering many of my photographs using Adobe Photoshop Elements.

Since then I have become fascinated with the abilities of colors and shapes to perform subtle magic, such as expressing three dimensions in a two-dimensional medium, evoking emotion, stimulating the intellect, and toying with the sense of vision.

I have been called an "elementalist", because I experiment with the elements of art: contrasting colors, bright hues and tones, textures, dispersal of selected colors across the canvas (digital or real), depth perception based on color contrasts, and so forth. Although I prefer to let others develop the terms to describe what I do, so far I have found this description the most accurate.

Although it may appear that I simply splash colors onto a digital (or real) canvas, there is some planning and forethought that goes into each work. However, there is also a great deal of spontaneity and serendipity as well. That is the fun part of creation for me.

The work entitled op art 4 and is one of the simplest examples of what I strive to achieve. I wanted to make op art 4 three-dimensional. I know that people perceive darker colors as farther away and brighter colors as closer. I therefore developed a frame with progressively darker, grainier shades of blue to give the effect of a tunnel into the vanishing point. To have something in the foreground I put a red swirl with a tone comparable to that of the lightest blue. Red and blue contrast strongly. If placed so that they touch, the result can strain the eyes. In op art 4 I used them to produce a strong effect, while separating them with black to reduce that effect and to give the feeling of depth. To my eyes, the effect is 3-D. Please let me know if you perceive the same.

If you will examine my other works with an eye towards depth perception, contrast, balance between light and dark areas, texture, and other nebulous, subjective aspects, I believe you will find perusal of my works to be an interesting visual and mental experience.

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