ARTIST STATEMENT

I learned to be an artist in my grandmother’s kitchen. There I discovered the magic of combining ingredients. My grandmother rooted me in a tradition of women transforming raw materials into art.

In my studio I work with the same sense of heightened expectation but without knowing exactly what I’ll finally produce. I have faith that the elements I work with will result in visual expression that will be both familiar and totally new.

I work with a broad spectrum of materials that facilitate both visual and substantial texturing. These include paints, papers, re-purposed used sandpapers from plaster wall works, ink jet printing on fabric and acetate, wood and wood veneers, plasters and raw pigments. To me, juxtapositions of opaque and translucent materials resemble the process of storing and accessing memories. Some stand out in stark relief while others are more subtle and amorphous. I plumb these reserves using found and fabricated object/fragments to respond to these urges. My collages and constructions take on their form and borders organically as the works evolve. I make objects that invoke nature and place but don’t seek to depict either. I’ve recently returned to working with the figure in the series “No Place Like Home”, which has autobiographical references. I envision these works becoming life sized.

My paints, papers, plasters, woods, collected and fabricated fragments, memories, daily surroundings and events, are my “artist’s tools” that mirror and nourish my art practice, just as the example of a loving and encouraging grandmother taught me the power of creative transformation.