ARTIST STATEMENT - Current Work
Using the natural world as a vector for exploring unique personal perspectives is a powerful way to understand both the common ground and the idiosyncratic points of view upon which we all experience this life. I explore themes of environment in my oil paintings, using the natural world as a symbol of hope, virility, and fragility.
The paintings represent the natural world in botanical silhouette. The incredible intricacy of life that springs forth when it seems as though the world is forever dormant rings miraculous every time, and the silhouettes speak to both the simplicity of this cycle and the surprise of it. A consistent source of light populates paintings that combine imagery from my home and garden. This warm glow speaks to the hope that can emerge even when we cannot see how it will. There is optimism in the shining light that can warm our hearts and minds if we let it. In other paintings, the moon rises. A softer glow and a quieter presence, the unwavering cycle of the moon proves a routine upon which we can rely.
Other paintings set strips of horizon amidst the silhouettes. Life often feels full. Full of work, of obligations, of clutter, of friendships, of joy, of anxiety, of sadness. Take a moment, the paintings ask, to notice the place beauty holds in your experience of the world. A narrowing of the grandeur allows us, perhaps, to notice it it more readily.
Amidst a world of noise, the distilled nature of a contemplative world can be lost but for the moments of light and beauty that give us pause. My paintings are representations of the growth that we find around us, both figuratively and literally. They are a meditation on the internal garden of our pensive minds and on the external celebration of an abundant world.
ARTIST STATEMENT - A Reflection on Older Work
Placing specific images in my work has been a way of cataloging my own experiences and making jubilant artwork that is deeply personal. I’ve used, for example, the silhouette of the weed picked for me by my child, the pattern on a particular summer dress, the slats of a railing on a favorite porch, and the light poles on a corner that I miss. Elements in my paintings dance around each other in compositions that mimic the untidy and amorphous character of recollection. Color functions to surprise, to engage, to excite, and to calm. Shapes, opacity, and transparency build my compositions in unexpected ways with elements that overlap and weave in and out of view. Ultimately, the work brings memories together to create a beautiful cataloguing of often disparate elements in one’s psyche. At the same time, memory is inconstant and can morph and change to become something new.
With the onset of the pandemic in March 2020, my celebration of color and the playfulness and joy that was so much on view in my compositions became, I felt, inappropriate. I simply couldn’t make paintings that were such celebrations, and I found that this emotional and artistic roadblock forced a change in my practice. I used those feelings to create new work, different work. The paintings still relate to pre-pandemic themes, but my palette shrank to focus on blues and black with only a small moment of warmth. Though I have always used imagery from my life, my source material became more limited, and my small sliver of the world - my garden, my home - became my source. Amidst the dark, though, there had to be a spark: the use of a vivid yellow against the blues and blacks of the composition became a small moment of joy and an intense illumination in the midst of the storm in which we found ourselves.
This was a more sober and narrative approach with a more pointed use of vivacity. After time spent throwing as much color as I could into compositions as a celebration of the capacity of our minds to weave together all the images of our lives, I am now exploring how a more restrained approach can tell a story that is, perhaps, even more compelling. My paintings have always been inextricably connected to my own life, and I am struck now by the common weight of lived experience that brings all of us together.