Artists statement: Pastel is a delicate medium and the word alone describes something soft and pale. But these are not the words I use to describe my palette. I like to push the medium towards rich and bold in both design and in color. The character of my work oscillates between realism and abstraction. It is based on a personal visual philosophy of color and design with landscape as a reference. By fusion of the concepts of realism and freedom of gesture, each piece becomes an illusion that the viewer can relate to as a place that might exist in a world of richer color and more abstract shapes than what is familiar.