HOMETOWN

  I was born in 1963 at the Sheridan County Memorial Hospital.  I was educated in Sheridan public schools, and for the first seventeen years of my life, I was raised with the small-town perspective of a local native.  I am plainly a product of Sheridan, Wyoming.

   After high school, I left Wyoming and have now spent the majority of my life away.  Over those years I traveled a great deal — to all fifty states, most of Canada, much of western Europe, and parts of Russia and Southeast Asia. I’ve lived, studied and painted in major cities and rural areas across the United States.  Now, returning to Wyoming at this point in my life, I see Sheridan, with fresh, yet connected and familiar eyes. Of course, it has changed over the years, but many things -- surprisingly many -- remain the same.

   This exhibition of 35 small-scale paintings is my attempt to paint my hometown, the town that formed who I am, a place I have always loved yet, at one time, couldn’t wait to escape.  My intent was to paint town as I see it now, a show devoid of sentimentality, but with decided sentiment. I have approached the work in the same way I approach all of my paintings— as intimate studies, or portraits.  I am not fond of labels, but I suppose my work could be called representational in that all of the paintings are recognizable subjects. However, I am not drawn to nor inspired by subject alone (building, street, truck, or train).  Rather, I am inspired always by the abstract qualities of light and color in what I see. I now see Sheridan with a new attitude affected by the passing of time and experiences lived, and in painting “Hometown” my eyes have been opened to what is right here in front of all of us.  Our town is distinctly Sheridan, distinctly Wyoming and distinctly American.