This series of paintings concerns our beautiful chain of mountains known as High Sierra or the Sierra Nevada. I have borrowed the title from the great suspense mystery movie with Humphrey Bogart. The title and the movie captured the excitement, and mystery of the process of the formation of mountain topography as well as the experience of the ruggedness that envelopes the High Sierra. Yet, as a painter I am concerned with the psychological, existential, and spiritual edge that shares similarities with the experience of extreme sports in mountains like the Sierras, the Sawtooth Range, the Rockies, and the Sangre de Christo. These names and references themselves connote “out –there” adventure and exploration. Each painting is a new exploration of the thrill, edge, if you will, of the personal experience of a painter. Today, I am focusing on the experience of being on "The Wall" as an aritist. It can be a very exciting, nerve racking experience. The Wall of a gallery is much like the descent of the straight downhill like the Cornice at Mammoth, or the North Shore in winter, the north face of Patagonia. The subject manner can be buried in the paint and canvas, just as our true person can be buried under the veneers of our days and our personas.
