I have lived in Alaska for over thirty years.  During those three decades, I have spent much time in the Alaska wilderness, yet I have never painted landscapes.  Primarily in defiance of cliché expectations of  what Alaskan artists paint!  Until now.

Why now? Because I have been thinking about leaving Alaska.  Joni Mitchell's lyric "you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone," keeps going through my head as I begin to imagine life without my daily views of the Chugach Mts or Cook Inlet or Sleeping Lady.  As I picture with affection the lakes and streams and trees and flowers, yes, even the snow and ice, which I have come to take for granted.  As I realize that having lived in Alaska now for more of my life than on the West Coast where I was raised, this place has saturated my being, and it has become a huge part of who I am.  And I wonder if I can really leave.

But, because of this knowledge that I actually do expect to pull up stakes and head south when my daughter Lauren goes off to college in two years,  I find myself looking at Alaska's beauty with a deep intensity, more like a visitor than a resident.  And so this summer, during a camping trip up the Deshka River with my studio-mate Kim Marcucci, I became passionate about finally finding my way to portray Alaska landscapes.  This show is the beginnings of that exploration.