Statement
My painted collages are layers of images that play off each other and mood. The images are both personal and universal and like memories you think you have neatly tucked away, they emerge and fade in the strangest ways. The stories I weave are sometimes reflections on my personal journey and at other times inspired by the lady in the cross walk this morning, current events, my current music playlist or a story or poem I recently read (fiction and nonfiction). My ongoing wrestle with my emotions and feelings drives the images, movement and layering in my art. I do not intend to give a literal story, but rather leave the viewer space to bring their journey to the paintings and read the story from their perspective.
Natural landscapes and urban landscapes inspire my sense of place. Similar to riparian zones, zones between these two places are fragile lines that make me think. The fragile lines also exist throughout our days as too many of us walk around on this planet together. I find inspiration in those fragile lines in both our physical world, our social structure and the challenges we face as we universally question the way we treat each other and our home (earth).
The current work I am doing is a coming together of the collages I made during the pandemic years, a recent return to a focus on drawing practice, plein air painting and acrylics. The process in all of these remains true to my encaustic practice of layering, adding and subtracting color, medium, texture and images while creating mood and a sense of place.