As a child of the ‘50s, I was captivated by Van Gogh’s Starry Night at MOMA, and stood surrounded by Monet’s’ Water Lily Murals, then later at the Guggenheim was awed by Francis Bacon’s disturbing portraits, and further intrigued by the “Is it art?” question regarding Jackson Pollock’s black paint spatters. Perhaps this early fascination with unique interpretive styles explains my need to envision my own thoughts in paint. Here was a vehicle that could transform my experiences and channel my mental meanderings on psychology and philosophy. Art could be my idea laboratory and my voice. My series of ELEMENTAL RHYTHMS paintings are influenced by the energetic emotionally charged paintings of the New York School of Abstract Expressionism. These paintings are likewise meant to have an immediate visceral impact on the viewer. I combine Impressionist with Expressionist techniques that bring into play the textural and transparent physicality of the paint, and I choose color themes that will produce specific atmospheres. I arrange rhythmic lines and forms so as to generate the sensation of motion. Each of my compositions involves static tension set within ongoing motion. Our life experience incurs periods of waiting stress knowing that the movement of changing circumstances determine our fate. My images intertwine realistic elements with abstraction for the purpose of creating environments that are familiar and yet mysterious. The viewer might feel an attracting pull, a beckoning invitation to enter, to explore, to recognize and to discover. My visions for the ELEMENTAL RHYTHMS paintings formed during my observations of the woodland pond behind my studio. Here I witness the primordial architecture of raw nature. In this light filled reflective atmosphere the real and imaginary fuse. My work recreates the activity and endlessly changing intricacies of this ecological environment in which wild crowding plants, water and sky entwine confounding the real and the illusory. Reeds pierce surface reflections of overhead clouds that converge with vegetation. Bordering trees cast dark shadows. Frogs and ducks make water swirl, while flying insects breeze through the air. Sparkling in sunlight, pounded by rain, covered in ice, spreading the light of the moon, flooding or dry, plants and creatures are born, flourish and die. Metaphorically, the life cycles of the pond parallels all life. Inclusive to and conditioned by nature we are equally subject to its forces. My work intimates the always surprising unknown process orchestrated throughout nature. Perhaps my sensual images offer the viewer an opportunity to focus inward to contemplate on one's own nature. These paintings express my responses to what I see, interpret and feel. However they are hopefully openings for limitless other personal narratives. My purpose is to achieve evocative compelling images, that invite intimate exploration. Intimacy, the spiritual and the aesthetic are uniquely human capacities that enrich our lives. They deepen personal meaning as one participates in the world at large.