Past Exhibitions > Everything is Illuminated

Cycropian Sky
(Triple Lunar Eclipse)
Acrylic Paint and Paper
2018
Icarus and His Dreams of Falling
Acrylic Paint and Paper
2018
Everything Is Illuminated
Acrylic Paint, Paper and Found Objects
2018

Invitation to a Conversation
During the 1960’s , my dad Wink became aware of
Buckminster Fuller and began taking us to the lectures
at the University of Chicago and other venues. Those
lectures could last for hours and they captivated us.
Wink worked as a self-employed carpenter/general
contractor, but his passion became studying Fullers’s
math and philosophy . He would wake up early to build
models that would demonstrate the math behind
geodesic domes, tensegrity spheres and atomic concepts.
At the same time, my mom Jeannie had become a
Montessori school teacher (after I was already in junior
high) and began teaching 3-5 year olds to be critical
thinkers. She had also trained as a commercial artist.
They shared with my brothers and me their different
ways of teaching. Jeannie was subtle, Buddhist like,
never drawing attention to herself . She was always
working with the goal of teaching us to be
compassionate yet able to explore and honor who we
were becoming as individuals.
Wink was always ready to show us what he learned
through studying Fuller's work. Pepsi and cigarette in
Invitation to a Conversation
hand , he would explain the next concept that he had
newly comprehended.
Before I had my driver’s license, Wink was giving my
friends and me a ride to an event. We were in the back
seat of the van talking negatively about someone at
school. At the next stop sign, he turned around and
stated a quote attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt - “Great
minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small
minds discuss people.” We did not have anything else to
say on the way to the destination.
The short list of people who have influenced this body of
work are: Jeannie and Wink Donovan, Leonard Cohen,
Buckminster Fuller, Joseph Cornell and Christine
Tharnstrom (my pearl girl). They converge, intersect,
and weave with me and each other throughout the day,
along with others who have touched my life.
All these years later, I am still talking about people.
Who are your influences and muses?
Thank you to Lorna Ann Filippini and Clyde Paton for
this opportunity to share my passion.