The Middle Eastern city where I grew up was the third to be built on that site. Modern amenities and conveniences were available. Yet daily customs and practices remained unchanged through the centuries. School field trips to three thousand year-old ruins filled me with wonder as did my father’s collections of old manuscripts, coins and tapestries.

Although I’ve lived most of my adult life in the United States, a lot of my imagery draws on these early influences, using symbols reminiscent of ancient writing. Several layers of pigment -- layers of civilizations perhaps -- alternately hide and reveal what is underneath. This ambiguity invites the viewer’s interpretation, engaging the imagination.

Employing a fairly new medium - oil sticks - directly on sealed hardwood panels, I work the pigment in with my fingers, blending, layering and marking the surface which ultimately yields the final image. Other than scratching tools and paper towels, I use no implements. In some of the paintings I’ve left finger or hand prints as traces of this process.