My family encouraged me to delve into different creative processes.  My father was an Associate Dean of Architecture, my mother a teacher, my brother composed music and played piano, violin and guitar, and my sister studied Art History and has a professional 5 year degree in Architecture. As a successful Sous Chef, she developed superb skills in culinary arts.  What a wonderful foundation for my own artistic ventures!

At the University of Oregon in Eugene, I majored in Music Education but also studied Fine Art.  Robert Scott Thompson, then a composition student, introduced me to the music of Fripp, Eno and David Bowie.  Art teachers Laura Alpert, Ron Graff and Peg Coe introduced me to composition, scale, weight and materials: cement, marble, watercolors, ink, oils and other media.

Taking a break from school, I spent a year in NYC, where I found myself in the new world of punk rock.  I was thrilled to be at CBGBs or Max’s Kansas City to see the likes of Richard Hell and Johnny Thunder, to have drinks with Blondie’s drummer and introduce myself to David Bowie (though the bouncer moved me quickly away, Bowie smiled and laughed).  And of course there was the art scene: The Guggenheim, MOMA, and all the galleries in Chelsea and SOHO.  New York City!

Back in Oregon, I changed my major from Music to Art and started a punk-influenced rock band.  J. Gallows and The Executioners rocked the scene. The band was unplugged when singing “Stupid Girl” at a dance in Beaverton, and I was punched in the arm for being a punk rocker at another dance in Eugene.  Overall the music scene in and around 13th Ave in Eugene was an experience I will never forget – with so many people to thank.

With a B.A. in hand, I moved to San Francisco to continue a path in music.  I wrote songs, sang and played guitar and keyboards for a series of bands, including Elephant Gun, The Power of Three, and David-Hodge Project.  Highlights included an album (yes, vinyl) and opening for Sparks, Level 42 and record producer Don Was of Was (Not Was).

While engaged in the Bay Area music scene, I was encouraged to check out the highly regarded San Francisco Art Institute.  I did.  I enrolled.  It was an amazing experience.  Formidable painting teachers such as Julius Hatofsky, Irene Pijoan, Bruce McGaw, and John S. McNamara helped my focus as a painter and guided me to my MFA in Painting.  A meeting with Robert Gamblin helped refine my use of his company’s mediums.

Galleries showed interest in my work.  Peter Wright and Armando Rascon of Terrain, Jean Louis Pearson of Show N Tell, and Susan Cummins in Mill Valley helped spread my art in the U.S. and abroad to England, Canada and Hungary.

The fluid merger of Art and Music is a major inspiration for my work – what excites me.  The gestural quality of paint changes constantly to inform the next color or the next brushstroke, as I continue to explore the experience of form in space.  My goal is to synthesize color with rhythms of sound and forms.  I am excited by the movements of the sea and land and the stresses and balance between color values and pictorial depth.  

~jh