During my career as a humorous illustrator, I always found the time to pursue personal watercolors. I used them as a place to explore pigments, their reactions with one another and the use of different substrates. For this reason, I kept the compositions quite simple, letting the color do the talking. As I transitioned out of my illustration career and into semi-retirement, I had a lot more time to devote to watercolors. I still kept my morning sketchbook routine, but those drawings now became studies for watercolors. Every afternoon I pick out a sketch to expound upon with a watercolor. I believe in the power of routine, and through daily practice, a rhythm is established. Sometimes I’m on, other times not so much. On some days, better choices are made. In the back of my mind is a line that an artist friend once told me: You have to be prepared to make a bad painting to make a good one.

To be honest, there is not a lot of philosophical hokum behind these paintings. They all started out as drawings in my sketchbooks in which I have been drawing in earnest since 1973. At present I have completed enough of them to fill the trunk of a luxury automobile and am working on filling a small U-Haul. I try to set aside an hour every morning to draw for myself, to brainstorm with pen on paper. I seldom start drawing with preconceived notions and I never know where it will take me. I bring a free ranging intellect to the process. That, and considerable enthusiasm.

From these sessions, concepts for paintings emerge; ideas are formed by my love of petroglyphs of the Southwest, outsider and self-taught artists, sideshow banners, vintage cartoons and comics and automatic drawing. What holds these influences together is a certain off-kilter sensibility that I am told goes back many generations in my family history.