The lively art community of Greenwich Village in lower Manhattan richly influenced my early years. I grew up near Washington Square in the time when painters Milton Avery and Edward Hopper were Village residents, and when rents were low enough to allow small uncompromising art galleries to flourish. I would make frequent trips to the major New York art museums with my father, who was an artist and illustrator. Although I did not realize it at the time, this exposure to great art was the foundation of my art education. In my work, I am always mindful of the traditional craft of painting, but my aim is to project more than the image. I depict forms, light and atmosphere as a means of conveying a calm reverence for the world at large.My still life paintings are usually small icons of ordinary items illuminated by a single source of light. I carefully study (and hopefully convey) the subtlety of shadow and reflection that enliven the rendering of form. Each composition invites the patient viewer to contemplate both the painted surface and the illusion of space