I have had a long career in the arts, including teaching many types and levels of art for about thirty years in total, beginning in Connecticut and New Mexico. Now living in Westerly, Rhode Island, I retired as Professor Emeritus of Art from Loyola University Maryland in 2019. There I taught more than fifteen different courses, mentored several Independent Studies and directed the Studio Arts program for many years.
Although I use paint, my highly-focused undergraduate foundations in drawing and printmaking expanded through the decades to include and mix almost every type of medium except traditional painting, such as: collage, assemblage and found object sculpture, book arts, darkroom photography, digital imaging and works in clay. I often drew at a very large scale, sometimes continually from one end of a tall roll of drawing paper to the other, as a scroll. These days my work usually begins in collage/assemblage, harvesting source materials that I have created myself or saved for a personal reason. The materials I have amassed and saved have traveled with me for decades.
With each new work I set up a new visual problem to solve through the artmaking process itself. I push myself to create something that challenges me in the making, offers something new that I must figure out, and surprises me in its completion. I work in series, such that the source materials relate, but not many individual pieces of mine look very alike, nor repeat something I’ve done before, or seem similar to other works I’ve seen. That’s what keeps me interested in continuing to work as an artist. With every work, strong composition and cohesive design is always my goal.
Artworks of mine are in many public and private collections nationally, and I have won many awards. Two Percent for Art projects in clay that I produced still exist in New Mexico. As a juried member of Artists' Cooperative Gallery of Westerly, I exhibit new and recent work every month and show regularly in regional and national galleries and museums through juried competitions.
In addition to my work as an artist, I have also done a great deal of scholarly research and writing over the years and am currently working on my third book. Working title is A Glimpse Into Ireland Through the Mahers.
• Waterbury Irish: From the Emerald Isle to the Brass City, The History Press (published 2015)
• From the Old Sod to the Naugatuck Valley, Apprentice House (published 2012)
