Artist Statement

My practice includes many media. I process my life experiences by meditating on my concerns as I make marks.  Mark making is the most basic, personal and individualistic action. It is the connection of hand, mind and emotion, reflecting the energy, speed and tools with which the marks are made. Marks can be sparse, layered, scarred, scratched or incised. They can be slow and deliberate or forceful and fearless. They are generated by a personal rhythm that is as natural as breathing. Marks map my thoughts and emotions and life experiences. Shapes and colors that appear abstract are actually symbolic representations of my concerns.  My themes seem to mirror the stages of my life, ranging from relationships, to empty nest to the fragility of life and the connections and mis-connections of the systems that hold it all together.  In a way, my processes are metaphors for my themes.  This includes the concept of reclamation.  It translates into using found objects (which transmit their own history)  and re-purposing my failed artwork into new pieces. The stitches I use hold parts together to maintain fragile connection, as well as serving as another way to make marks. Layering paint and collage and scraping and incising  layers reveal the history of what came before.  The process is both a struggle and a meditation.  I never know what will happen in advance.  The mystery is what motivates me to  see how far I can go.  Knowing that it is all a resource for new work, makes it easier to take risks.

Each media requires a different approach to the same concepts. Encaustic forces me to slow down and think before committing, but change is quicker and layers are deeper.  Different levels can be revealed. Painting is a dance to a faster rhythm.  The reflection comes as layers dry. Collage is a fury of cut and rip, layer, change and reconstruct. Altering prints is a slow, obsessive fugue of tiny details and small stitches. Assemblage is like making visible poems with objects that rhyme. Drawing is the most direct connection between thought and action. In the end, it is all the same. I knew it the first time I picked up a crayon.  Making marks is a powerful thing.