I have admired jazz music ever since sharing a college dorm room with a genuine jazz composer who brought along his Fender Rhodes, and was the keyboardist with a jazz band of other college students. In the mid-'80s, while living on the Lower East Side, I was looking for a new subject to move on from my somewhat academic (but offbeat) classical studio art training. I began drawing from various impromptu jazz combos that then commonly played on the sidewalks of the East Village and downtown. This led to a series of drawings, prints and paintings, circa 1985-1995, in which I became able to invent figures (along with their musical instruments) rather than rely on life models or photographs. Reflecting the varied moods of music itself, some of these images are sunnier than others.

I dedicate this page to the remarkable jazz guitarist Shinobu Ito.