I created my first collage five years ago when I needed a large piece of art for a bare wall in my house. Using leftover Japanese paper, dyes, and acrylics from a project I did at my son’s school, I created a 5 by 7 foot tryptic. Although I had spent the previous 20 years, working as a representational artist with oils and pastels, I loved the freedom, spontaneity, and happy “accidents”, I found in this medium. I discovered patterns, rhythm, depth, and harmony as I worked across the canvas. After I completed my first collage, I couldn’t stop, and for the next 15 months I worked solely on completing 25 collages. I am drawn to greens and blues, most likely from all summers I spent on Lake Michigan, and my current home in Lewes, DE. While I love the palette of a bright beach day--the sparkling water and blue skies, bright umbrellas, and brilliant sunsets, I am equally drawn to the subtle greys and blues of an overcast, moody day. And how can one not be inspired by what happens after a sunset—when just for remaining thirty minutes more, you are given an even greater show of muted mauves, pinks, greys, yellows and cerulean and cobalt blues? The water and sky competing for the last word. I also seek to discover new color combinations by studying the palettes of VanGogh, Monet, and Matisse, as well as abstract artists such as Diebenkorn, Frankenthaler, and Mitchell. I listen to classical, rock, and many kinds of other music when I paint, but the influences of R&B and Motown find their way rhythmically into my work most often—probably a throwback to my Michigan days.