Biography:

Born: Flensburg, Schleswig/Holstein, Germany.
Residing: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Arts Ed: BFA'93, Queen's University, Kingston,Canada, Studio Majors: Painting/Sculpture; Summer '88 "Painting the Landscape", Ontario College of Art & Design,(OCAD), Toronto, Canada; and, BA(hons)'71,(Humanities: English/History) University of New Brunswick,(UNB), Fredericton, Canada

My roots and heritage is Northern European (Nordic). I was born and spent almost the first eleven years of my life in the city of my birth, Flensburg, located on the western shores of the Baltic Sea, its surrounding areas, and in Denmark. With Danish and German as my 'mother tongues' I absorbed both cultures and traditions simultaneously until my emigration to Canada in 1957.

Inspired by nature and the uniqueness of the Canadian landscape, I began painting in oils in the mid sixties, emulating members of the Group of Seven and other Canadian landscape artists such as Emily Carr (1871-1945) and Tom Thomson (1877-1917). With more formal art studies, my artistic interests turned to the figurative, often with a special focus on the human form in a given physical environment and/or psychological state.

I work in various drawing and painting media, however, I count among my favourites almost all oil based paints. For supports I use mostly canvas and wood based surfaces. My inspiration comes from history, language, literature and music. In my image-making, no attempt is made to render a formal visual preconceived, accepted reality. In fact, moods, emotions, or'states of being' may be explored in worlds often entirely illusionary. Form, gesture, ritual, symbol, and myth (personal and archetypal) serve as visual metaphors.