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When people see my work, I like it when they tilt their head, get up close, squint, walk far away, then suddenly look back and, with a smile of recognition say, "Oh wow, it's a Martini!"

I paint what I love: drinks, flowers, cars. I paint in a bold impressionistic style. I love thick, juicy paint, loose shapes, the smell of the studio. I paint because, when it is going well, I am filled with a sense of well-being, of belonging, of total ìbe in the momentî consciousness. I am never closer to myself than at those moments.

Shape, color, tone are what matter when I'm painting. When I paint the shapes of color and not the "thing" I believe I am painting, the substance of that "thing" will appear; shapes of color become a face, a jacket, a hat.

I was first aware of this, first experienced it myself, when I painted a self portrait a few years ago in a class. Intent, I concentrated on looking at each component of my right eye in the mirror. I asked myself three questions: 1. what is the shape; 2. is the color light or dark; 3. is the color warm or cool? Answering those three questions over and over and painting based on those answers resulted in my right eye.

It was as if a face, my face, was emerging from the canvas, as if by magic, as if it had always been on that canvas and just needed to be revealed. I stood back amazed.

At that moment I was convinced that I was a painter.

I started painting almost by accident. I was a successful attorney, living comfortably in the left side of my brain. A friend bought me paints and brushes for my birthday.

I said, "How did you know I wanted to paint?"

She said, "It's all you've been talking about for months."

I didn't even realize I had mentioned it.

I was living on my boat at the time, traveling the east coast. My lifestyle limited my painting: I couldn't paint large canvases nor was the rocking of the boat conducive to painting straight lines. Seeing those limitations, I studied color. Vivid, bright, saturated, alive colors appealed to me then and still do.

Four years later I moved off of the boat to Provincetown, Massachusetts, a town with a rich and eclectic art community.

I paint large canvases now but I still don't paint straight lines.

I'm currently working a great deal with a palette knife. Since itís not an instrument designed for detail work, it forces me to paint larger and larger shapes in a painterly style. I continue to experiment with color. I seek subject matter which makes me smile and is technically challenging. Quite simply, my goal is to put shapes of color on a canvas and make paintings. I love the process; I love the product.

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