Tomorrow will come on its green footsteps is a phrase from "Sonnet 49", a poem by Pablo Neruda. The entire line reads Tomorrow will come on its green footsteps; no one can stop the river of the dawn. Often, I title works with fragments from favorite poems or books and the Neruda poem inspired the title for a new cycle of works. Growing up in a New Jersey farmhouse surrounded by woods is the primary force behind my work. That experience engendered my peculiar relationship to the landscape and has continued to do so.
 
 

Everything is Sky is an ongoing series that still contains the experience of a visit to the Guyana rainforest even as the memory has dimmed and my New Jersey environment vies for attention. The title came to mind while reading "Where the Heart Beats", a biography of John Cage by Kay Larson. How Cage's experience of Zen Buddhism influenced his art has given me much to consider in my approach to painting. I paint directly on the support: My intention is to maintain the immediacy of the mark. The image is revealed through the process. My touchstone always is the phenomenological world.

Now you feel how nothing clings to you is a line from the poem "The Buddha in Glory" by Ranier Maria Rilke that I read at my brother's funeral. My reading of the poem was the impetus to reflect on chaos and impermanence and for beginning these paintings. A profound experience of visiting the Guyana rainforest in 2011 became a strong influence on the subject matter of this series.

16 Paintings for Marjorie are acrylic on wood panels. They extend my process, which engaged me for fifteen years, of producing works composed of multiples of four. The seies and individual works are titled to honor my mother, Marjorie who encouraged me and instilled in me the values to become an artist