Grey Cube Gallery proudly presents the first Artist's Choice online art show for the month of November 2020. The show encompassed a range of artistic styles and mediums (photography, digital, mixed media, collage, oil on canvas, acrylic, graphite, watercolor, pastel, color pencil, metal recycle). Each submission has been judged based on the following elements of artistic expression: orginality and quality of art, overall design, creativity, interpretation of the theme, demonstration of artistic ability and usage of medium. Out of all entries, 95 artworks were shortlisted for inclusion in the show. The competition attracted entries from many countries across the world: Canada, France, USA, Japan, Australia, Taiwan, Spain, Italy, Russia, Sweden and United Kingdom. Enjoy the show and thank you for expressing an interest in our competition.

I have always worked almost exclusively with acrylic on canvas, or occasionally on masonite or paper. I have always worked using unconventional methods, as well. Consequently, I have made it a habit over the years to play with paint in order to learn more about what it is capable (and not capable) of doing. This has led me to paint on glass, then transfer that paint into "paint assemblages", extrude paint from modified syringes creating webbed paintings that resemble bent, colored wire, and most recently, to sling paint from ultra-fine straight pins, at very high speed, onto canvas. The mark created by doing this just blew me away the first time I made it. Its defining characteristic is electric energy, but the incredibly fine nature of the mark is also striking. It immediately struck me as the perfect visual signifier for string theory. Beginning around 2006, I used this mark to create images of "the universe of mind and spirit" as I envisioned it, inspired by images of the physical universe produced by the Hubble space telescope. Three series resulted from that effort. All through this period, I wondered about mixing color optically by overlapping the fine skeins produced by this mark and eventually began a series to explore the matter. The “Poles/Dipole” series began as single panels, but evolved into two panel pieces, and then three panel pieces, and ultimately a four panel piece. The series is, on one level, simply an exploration of the colors that can be mixed in this manner. On a deeper level, however, it still deals with the same issues I've always dealt with, just in a more abstract idiom. I am now eighteen paintings into the “IMP” series and their associated “PREIMPS”, which function as “warmups” for painting the “IMP” pieces.

I received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in illustration with a minor in photography from Parson’s School of Design, New York, NY. Well known in the Pacific Northwest Region my work has been the subject of numerous group and solo exhibitions. I am member of Oregon Society of Artists and has won several awards for my paintings. Arts Council of Lake Oswego, OR invited me to curate a group show: “Transitions”- Featured artwork by Don Bishop, Eric Boyer, Michael Orwick, and Christopher B. Mooney. The St John’s Bridge painting appeared in the residence of the Grimm, the locally produced television series. 2009, my painting Cityscape was used as the cover and poster publicizing the book, “Rental Sales Gallery, Portland Art Museum, the First 50 Years”. Another piece was featured in “Hawthorne Bridge: Celebrating 100 Years in Art and Words”, a 2010 calendar supporting the Hawthorne Bridge Centennial Celebration. Barge Workers. I made contacts with the Tidewater Holdings Inc. maintenance crew and I was invited to go with them to their pier at the Columbia River, Vancouver, WA, and watch them do the maintenance of the various barges. Grip On Reality. Willamette Falls Foundation invited me to be with 20 artists selected to portray the Willamette Falls River Locks: Art Contemplates Industry show in Clackamas County. Artists were to document the Locks that was being maintained. I was thrilled, because this was an experience of personal significance to me, enabling me to document buildings and structures that are often unrecognized and forgotten. I continue to gain notoriety for my paintings.

Educated as a mechanical engineer, I have been making stained glass and mixed media sculptures for over thirty years. The combination of my engineering and artistic experience has resulted in my original yet durable designs of robot sculptures, which are made from recycled metal and repurposed metal objects. The care with which I create my characters gives them, despite their physical immobility, an engaging personality. Drawing inspiration from movies, graphic novels, books personality, mythology personality, history personality and video games, my sculptures merge human, animal and mechanical characteristics to give each piece a unique personality. Multimedia robot sculptures, in particular, have become very popular with consumers, due to their unique fusion of human and animal characteristics. I have exibited my sculptures all over Quebec,Canada and have won several awards.

I seek to share images with which I has a strong and instinctive personal connection. Images may be simply documentary, invoke a sense of time and place, or resonate as an abstract blend of color, shape or form. Others provoke an indefinable question that does not readily yield answers without further study and reflection. My creative process follows an intuitive yet patterned path, searching for the combination of elements that produces an instinctive but undeniable connection. Most often the images that provoke the strongest connection are those that do not produce an immediate reaction but provoke a response through repeated contact and consideration over time. I have exhibited widely in local, regional, and national exhibitions have won commendations for merit ranging from Honorable Mention to Best in Show. My photographs were also selected to hang in the Michigan Governor’s Mansion as part of a year-long exhibition highlighting State of Michigan artists.