About the Artist
My embroidery journey began in San Francisco’s Chinatown around 1977. As I walked down one of the streets, I noticed a garment in one of the shops. The garment was made from 100% mulberry silk and was embroidered using the “blind stitch” that was very small and difficult to work with and caused the young girls who used it to go blind. The story was intriguing (though not true).
I didn’t begin hand embroidering, however, until I retired in 2022. I am self-taught, and I use traditional embroidery methods and techniques to create my work. I use a needle in the same way that a painter uses a brush. Although many of pieces are based on theological precepts, specially ponerology and eschatology, I also draw inspiration from world history and literature, folklore, and mysticism.
Each of my embroideries begins with a doodle or sketch that I modify over several weeks to months. I build upon the sketch, adding some lines and subtracting others. I modify the doodle or sketch over the next few weeks or months. Once I have a workable design, I create a full-size cartoon that I transfer to the background fabric. I use several threads types in my work including gold couched thread, cotton floss, crewel wool, and silk. I also use a variety of background fabrics such as muslin, linen, ramie, and silk. I am particularly interested in the 13th century embroidery technique referred to as opus anglicanum and the 15th-century goldwork embroidery technique known as or nué.
Two of my thread paintings are based on the atrocities committed by the Nazis. Kristallnacht is an abstract interpretation of the November Pogrom that occurred on November 9-10, in 1938 when the Nazis vandalized and destroyed Jewish-owned businesses, synagogues, and homes, to the transportation of the first Jews to the concentration camps. Block 11 depicts the infamous death block in the Auschwitz deathcamps where the Nazis tortured and exterminated 1.1 million prisoners, 90% of which were Jews.
My first art quilt, Destroyer of Worlds, is an abstract depiction of the events that took place during the World-War II at the top-secret military base where the U.S. conducted research and developed the first atomic bombs, “Fat Man” and “Little Boy. The bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed nearly 250,000 people most of whom were civilians. Those two bombs were and are the first and only nuclear weapons deployed in a war. I created three pieces that are based on the legend of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse from the Book of Revelation: War, Famine, and Death. I am planning to complete the fourth horsemen, Pestilence, in the future.
In 2024, I was featured in an article in Embroidery Guild of America ‘s magazine, Needle Arts, entitled “The Road to Embroidery Enlightenment.” That same year, my wife, award-winning equine & figurative artist Sharon Matisoff, and I were featured in an article in the Lexington Herald entitled, “Husband and wife Frankfort artists among hundreds coming to Kentucky Crafted Market.” In 2025, Frank magazine published an article that pre-empted our two-artist show at the First United Methodist Church in Frankfort, Kentucky. That same year, the Kentucky Artists Council granted me the Emerging Artist Award for Fiscal Year 2026 in the amount of $1,000. I also was juried into the LAFTA (Louisville Area Fiber and Textile Artists) 30th anniversary Exhibition at PYRO Gallery in Louisville. In 2026, I won First Place in Textiles at the 2026 Kentucky State Fair.
