The obvious influences in my work are Cy Twombly, Brice Marden, Sol LeWitt, and Joseph Kosuth. The not so obvious, Norman Rockwell, Thomas Hart Benton, J.M.W.Turner, Keith Haring, Le Corbusier, Mies Van Der Roe, Andy Warhol and Barbara Kruger.

Where Cy Twombly and Brice Marden create an ambient field of gesture and mark, my work extends forward from theirs by using the pattern of language as the point of departure and foundation. The exaggerated humanity of Thomas Hart Benton and the vastness and grandeur of Turner are where my shape and color awareness emanates.The absolute precision of packaging and format are what I've learned from Warhol and Haring. The perfect stories, with beginning, middle and end, created by the American illustrator Norman Rockwell taught me the importance of a painting as completed narrative. The precision of Sol Le Witt and the architects mentioned lead me to the power of detail.

As a child growing up in Colorado in the western United States, these were my 'far-away' heroes; they were magicians of the first order. These men and women who created these images, blueprints and structures were my escape from the vastness of the western plains and the shadows and loneliness of the Rocky Mountains. I owe my sanity to these artists, architects and madmen.Painting is my voice and they have taught me the music.I must always pay homage to them. I stand on their shoulders and look forward. I use oils, acrylics, enamels and epoxy.