Dennis tells us more...

"The first time I viewed an Aboriginal Dream painting, where enlarged dots are used to make two-dimensional designs, I was hooked!

"Wow! Dots in COLOR!! And, being more anal than the average Aboriginal (there's that left-brain, engineering-side of me coming through) my dots kept getting smaller and smaller. In the beginning I began with a brush. Then the process evolved into making very small dots with acrylic paint markers -- tens of thousands of beads of color creating the upper layer of the painting; the bottom layer painted much looser in acrylics was chosen because of its faster drying time.

"Ceremonial masks are fascinating. I feel they reflect a society's traditions and heritage, while at the same time they become instruments of transformation -- replacing the face, or soul, of the wearer with something more otherworldly.

"I had been collecting masks for several years before I actually came up with the idea of using them as subject matter. My youngest daughter, years earlier, collected whimsical masks and I, without much conscious effort, began collecting the more ethnic ones during my travels and from multicultural shops usually found in university towns.

"My forte for several years was very detailed pen and ink drawings where I used stippling extensively and the subject matter for my earlier dot paintings had centered on scenery from my own photography files; having put my eight-foot painting format on the back burner. But I was itching to get back into painting so I felt I needed something more esoteric, more unique.

"The first paintings had bits and pieces of photographs collaged in; the photos I chose did not necessarily have anything to do with the culture, but were chosen because of their design elements. And, even with the implementation of my own approach, I still tried to retain the characteristics of each particular culture by incorporating their designs, colors, and symbols into the work. Sort of like my own version of historical fiction, another favorite.

"Gradually, my approach became more historical, rendering each as accurately as I could, using designs and symbols from their culture, but with a contemporary feeling. The collage aspect I eventually dropped. However, reminiscent of that, I always include an area that has been realistically painted; this has become a trademark of sorts.

"I chose Convergence as a general title for this series because of all the influences that converge to form one piece: the representative culture, the Australian Aboriginal technique of using dot-shapes, my own western sense of design, figurative and symbolic shapes, and realistic and abstract imagery.

"There are over thirty pieces in my series that employ a mask theme. While I continue to add new paintings to this series, each is enhanced and unified by the application of tens of thousands of beads of painted color. The earlier ones in the series are of acrylic and photo mixed-media on illustration board, while the latter ones are strictly acrylic paintings on masonite.

"The mask theme has lasted for over six years. Recently I decided to search out other subject matter and created landscapes and the NiteLite series -- based on blurred photos taken at night. My technique, however, whether it's my masks series or other series continues. It is very difficult, I feel, to truly establish an individualistic style and therefore one should not be so quick to abandon a direction once one has been established. Change will come, it's inevitable, but it may come abruptly or very slowly. For now, though, I am definitely enjoying the journey."