For me, painting is about color, motion, and emotion and their expression as form on canvas. My palette and subject matter reflect the joy, and sometimes the humor, I find in the world of my imagination and in everyday life. I love using the intense complimentary colors which give my work its signature exuberance, boldness, verve, and unique spirit
I work from my “gut”, or visual sense, working with a piece and not on a piece. The work guides me as I guide the work. This excites me and adds to the fun of exploration and experimentation. I work from the inside out; often working on the foreground then the background and back and forth. I enjoy putting paint on a surface and then taking some of it off or blending colors to create various levels and surfaces. I describe myself and am described as a “messy” painter because at the end of the day, my face and clothing reflect my palette.
Certain images have become part of my paint language: creatures, dreamers and their dream-scapes, landscapes, moons, trees, and dogs. The dog portraits are paintings of emotions. I find dogs show their feelings more clearly than people, so I choose to paint dogs as the subjects of my work on emotions. For my larger pieces I focus on emotion, as well, but emotion with motion, again using nonhuman creatures as the subjects. My pieces tell stories, but the stories are for the viewer to imagine and discover.
In addition to painting, I experiment with mixed media pieces, using handmade papers, mediums, glazes, and fabric to create texture and depth. I like incorporating quotes; some from my own poetry and some from favorite books.
I am delighted that my work has been described by the media as “edgy, fun, and fancifully colored.” |
