For over thirty years I have been using figurative motion as a catalyst for making art. As a deaf artist engaged in a life-long struggle to comprehend the world around me, I rely on gestural figures to chart my growth. With subconscious references to calligraphy and hieroglyphics, I try to direct the viewer away from literally interpreting what one sees toward a more internalized type of seeing. My mark-making process transforms simple gestural representations into an illusive search for clarity.

In the mixed media paintings (1999-2008), I used photos and text taken from various mass media sources to probe the world of the fashionable and powerful. I question society's seemingly insatiable appetite for images of fame, celebrity, and beauty while I ponder the mixed signals and chaos of consumer/visual culture.

My early work emphasized figurative gesture drawing in response to specific individuals. I use the figures I see like a writer taking notes and see changes in a person's gesture as signals of nonverbal communication. In my latest paintings, the gesture is a response to the human condition rather than direct, progressive studies of movement. The figures are iconic, grand hieroglyphs documenting the present state of the world seen through the eyes of American culture.

Sweeping and broad, my best works recast the figurative gesture into a form resembling the marks of an abstract expressionist. Supporting an ambiguous narrative, the marks are not about personal bravado. They are a distillation of my reactions to the movements of others. The human form is never still, but in a continuous state of movement. I think that how people move reveals a great deal about how they live.