Artist Statement:
My paintings are greatly inspired by natural forms: plants, root patterns, blossoms, bones. I feel an intense kinship with the landscape, especially my home country, Alaska. Right now, my work is mostly mixed media acrylics. I use very thin layers of tissue collage to create subtle surface effects beneath the paint which suggest fabric folds or leaf wrinkles.
For the past four years I've been working with The Shape; a curvilinear form that looks like a delineated eye or leaf. This shape represents many things for me; an individual, a specific memory or idea, or the aspect of one among many. When these Shapes combine, I am conveying how one singular identity can alter the overall aspect of a group. Also, it illustrates how when many memories or ideas flow together, one can gain new insight or make new decisions.
In the winter of 2007, I began to make the shift back to recognizable imagery after several years of painting abstracted botanical shapes. At first, this shift made its appearance as carefully drawn seashells and insects in a small series of paintings echoing the format of illustrated manuscripts. The accessibility to symbolic images caught hold and now my paintings are increasingly narrative. |
