"I want to paint the way a bird sings”
— Claude Monet
Visual and Abstract Folk Artist
Born Japanese-Cherokee-Irish-African American in a rural red town in the middle of a perennially blue state, I’ve never been easy to categorize. That’s what makes me, and especially my art, unique.
The backdrop of my early life was spent in the shadow of the Sierra-Nevada, and my first drawings were of the jagged snow-capped peaks I could see from my bedroom window. Even on days when the world-famous mountain range would get lost in Central California Tule fog, I could still trace the thumb-shaped outlines of mounts Whitney, Russell, Rose, and Ritter.
A recent trip to The Big Valley in the middle of summer reminded me how I loathe triple-digit temperatures. It’s been years since I worked and sweated among endless acres of Pima cotton, but the fleeting glimpse of field laborers toiling away in 111-degree heat stir admiration of their determination just to gain a footing in a land still as strange to me and it is to them. Traveling Tulare County roads now, I often let my mind conjure up those days of driving tractors and pickup trucks, grooving to Cheap Trick and Journey, daydreaming all the while of people, places on the north side of the Sierra.
I now live in New York City, where painting has rescued me emotionally from work as a journalist, assigned most days to the tragedies and treachery of American life.
Since so many have asked me if I have a website, I thought it was about time to launch one. Hopefully, I’ll find a community on my wavelength.
Sincerely,
Featured
Featured
Artists Who Inspire Me
Diego Rivera
Faith Ringgold
Shepard Fairey
Anna Sui
Patti Smith