I have tooled leather using traditional techniques and tools for more than 15 years. My work diverges from tradition as it extends the classical motifs and addresses contemporary social and environmental themes. I’ve taken his work in another direction by developing the techniques to make block prints from tooled leather pieces. The textures that can be achieved on tooled leather create a characteristic look for these prints.

My themes in my artwork emerge from values which have been accumulated over a lifetime. I grew up during the time that environmental concerns first became prominent, as indicated by the first Earth day, Rachel Carson’s book “Silent Spring,” the Love Canal disaster, and the establishment of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1970. This was also a time of social upheaval: urban renewal, the 1968 Democratic Convention, the assassination of Martin Luther King, and protest against the War in Vietnam. Growing up in an inner-city, I longed for wild spaces, and later spent 30 years working for EPA. All these elements find a home in the work that I do.