With Gratitude

I’ve always liked looking at drawings, especially old master figurative. I consider this curiosity the seed of my work in art.

Three Early Influences

I found myself steeped in art in San Francisco. Art expression and interpretation first entered my thinking when I was at Diablo Valley College in John Spence Weir’s photography classes. John’s photographs and philosophies as part of the Bay Area’s urban landscape photography movement had me fully engaged in large format black and white photography. At San Francisco State University, Jack Welpott’s program and teachers that included Don Worth, Neil White and Catherine Wagner–all of whom meaningfully shaped my thinking as a young artist, and then San Francisco gave me a good taste of the intrigue and dynamics of a multi-everything art community.  For me, there were three realms. First was absorbing the philosophy and aesthetic of the urban landscape photography. These artists offered me a new view of my world.  Second was walking around looking at my world through the lens of ‘my art.’ (My art was initially trying to internalize and produce my teachers’ urban landscape spirit.) Viewing the world through my art is a primary shaper of my consciousness today.  Third, the confluence in the Bay Area of so many artists, mediums, and arts organizations was a compelling stimulus–my youth was in the suburbs and on a farm. Reflecting on this time, I realize how important to me that the raw exposure of critiques were then, and still are when putting work ‘up on the wall.’  It’s still a rush. In many ways, this early arts exposure is surfacing in unexpected ways today.

After moving to San Diego, I served as a docent at the Museum of Photograph Arts for several years. MOPA’s founding vision and timing attracted superb photography and played a role in photography’s acceptance as a fine art. The work and artist talks invigorated me. In time looking at these works made me  realize I again wanted to make my own art.

New Teachers

I always wanted to draw and paint, and I’m thankful for this next group of teachers that I encountered in my early 30s. In the early 1990s, I studied at San Diego State University’s School of Art & Design–drawing and painting–with Richard Keely—and environmental design with Eugene Ray.  Keely encouraged explorations which I now strive to revisit…I watched him allow students to explore life’s brightest and darkest places. Ray–who was nothing but sustainable 40 years before its time–exposed me to organic architecture and planning teachings brought new possibilities to my already dissatisfied-with-urban-development feelings. We can build better! Unknown then to me is how profoundly religious studies professor Willard Johnson helped me understand world religions and spirituality in a way that that influences my view of every day around me — not just spiritually but also socially, environmentally, politically. With these SDSU perspectives, it is here where I committed my vocational urban economic career to sustainability, starting Pario Research in 1995 after nine years with KPMG. I was the first real estate researcher to commit all work to sustainability. Art, spirituality, and life experience made me aware of the importance of transitioning into more sustainable patterns of life.

My influences were piling up. The influence in my life of teachers, mentors, and friends started to become more apparent. I’ve been creating Dia De Los Muertos altars for years, and plan one honoring these influencers. Maybe this a good year for that.