Artist’s Statement Music and painting have been an intricate part of my life from a young age.  As a professional musician, I am busy with rehearsals, practice, or teaching, but I always have pictures and colors brewing in my head.  I believe that color speaks directly to the heart, mind, and spirit of a person, in a similar way that music does.  Color is very often the vehicle I am drawn towards to express my relationship to the subject. I like to sketch musicians in action. I always create the initial sketches while the music is happening. There is no substitute for being there live. My mark-making and pallet are both influenced by the sounds, melody and beat of a performance and by the concentration and personalities of the performers.   I try to capture the mood of the space and the music’s affect on me.  Even ‘silent’ subjects have a song,  however.   I might ask myself, “Does this still-life sound like blasting trumpets or a mellow flute? Is this landscape in a minor or major key?” I am drawn to water color because of the possibilities it offers for layering color.  I can create new colors from previous ones shining through. I often use an under-painting, a background of lines, fields, shapes and colors not directly related to the subject of the painting, to enhance the feel of rhythm, increase the variety of colors and add an abstract quality.   I like to paint what I see in a ‘real’ space, but through my special glasses. Someone once called it “Creative Realism”. The block prints are appealing to me because they celebrate the simplicity and playfulness of line.  But  I can be spontaneous, almost serendipitous,  and experiment with making the music come to visual life with paper I have water colored and with juxtaposed bright inks.