Portfolio of Works

These images originate from gifted photographs of garden debris found frozen in a wheel barrow. These images are about looking about what is below the surface in art and life. My working goal has been to paint the Inside/Out, to paint the transformation of taking one shape into another, capturing the secreted spaces that juxtaposition emerging growth and frozen trajectories, shattered pieces fusing. These paintings are about metamorphosis  and change. In this age of warp speed, I invite you to look beyond the surface, to look Inside /Out.

Still Waters Run Deep is an expression rooted in a 14th century proverb that states that the deepest river flows with the least sound and so goes the creative process and life in general, I find. Much of my work is abstracted because I value the multiplicity of interpretations that are encouraged by not tying the image to a specific representation. That said, examining the surface and what lies below is of paramount importance. Looking beyond what is customary and comfortable into new territory raises questions about our professional and personal underpinnings. Georgia O’Keefe said, “to see takes time”.The title of this series of paintings invites the viewer to take time to explore the depths. Are the metaphorical rocks and pebbles found below the surface obstacles or opportunities that provide new insight and direction?

The Primordial Shift Series deals with our universal alpha and omega experience.  The deception of majestic simplicity combined with the raw, explosive energy from which we all emerge, continue and return. Metal filings were incorporated into the surface to underscore our elemental origins.

As a child my grandmother would take us outside to look at the night sky.She would name the constellations and tell us legends attached to them.The magnitude and complexity of the cosmos was evident to me even then. I began to feel a sense of kinship with a world far different from the one in which I lived.The constant movement forwad,the patters of the universe that we acknowledge but  do not understand, convince me that we are not the result of these forces but part of this process.This body of work relates to my curiosity as to where I fit and what is our destination.

I have an interest in reflective surfaces and began experimenting with the process of mirror making combined with mineral and metal pigments on glass. I retrieved broken glass sections to work on and began make compositions from these shards, including Japanese minerals and metal elements.I enjoy the three dimensional element and the juxtaposition of working with glass,which is simultaneously fragile and strong, paint and metal in combination.

While traveling in Japan I was fascinated by the distillation of simplicity superimposed onto  the complex,  varied life forms portrayed in their art.  The simple and the complex, domestic and the divine so often rendered with the power of a single stroke. The compression of life form and symbolism provided an infinite smorgasbord of imagery from which emerges the rich tapestry of their culture. The “less is more” perspective encouraged me to consider a variety of compositions from a different perspective. I have used organic Japanese pigments  and metallic leaf, typical of the nihonga art tradition, in a  contemporary  way.This body of work is truly an intermarriage of multicultural realities.

Innumerable Dreams,Hang, Down a Celestial and Yet TheyEscape My Desperate Grasp Like the Argent Reflection of a Gossamer Moon. Sunjhini.

This imagery is rooted in my own questions about my professional and personal direction, my journey.I feel the need to step back; to quiet the inner voice so I might listen and examine how I see, to determine my realities and possibilities. 

Spirits Revealed:

We all paint internal and external experiences.   

Much of my life has been spent in a rural setting, so it is not surprising that the Spirits Revealed Series of paintings is concerned with the magic of organic interludes, fleeting sun-shadow passages, secreted spaces that are the juxtaposition of the emerging growth and simultaneous decay evident in all life forms.

The compression of life forms and symbolism provides an infinite smorgasbord of imagery from which emerges the rich tapestry of our culture. I have used organic Japanese pigments and metallic leaf in Visibly Full of Symmetry, typical of the nihonga art tradition, in a contemporary way. The less is more tradition frequented in Asian art and the relationship between painting and sculpture drive the composition.I use ancient products and techniques to create a sculptural element in a two dimensional work.

The sculptural result of natural forces births this series of paintings.  The constant interaction between the monumental, seemingly stationary, aspects of our environment and the transitional, minute particulate shape us.   The illusion and delusion of permanence give way. We are carved by the infinitesimally small, internally and externally. It is the cumulative total of the small that propels the avalanche of the universal soul. This continuum shapes, bends, blends, erodes, destroys, rebuilds and polishes us into sharp geometry and smooth curve.  I have sought to capture the oppositional force between static and explosive energy within the context of an organic substrate and incorporated metallic substances to underscore the primeval origins of this work.

This body of work speaks to a sense of renewal, the opening of one's spirit to  the  awakening of different dimensions and the emergence of possibilities to come.

This series of paintings acknowledges the value of the raw, intuitive response.Each person has a unique mark.We see this in our handwriting.We can all make the same letter, but each letter will be unique to the individual.The importance of the singular mark and each of us as an individual is affirmed by this phenomenon.The rough, simplistic, straight forward response seen in ancient art forms is extraordinarily powerful.Their art is fundamental, records their daily life: a trace of a cultural dream.  Their approach is no less valuable today, seeking to celebrate the pure, the unrestrained, the uncontrived in our work.

It has been said that our most intimate contact with civilizations, long since dust, continues through the art and tools left behind.This series of paintings provides an opportunity to visually and mentally contemplate their surface, as well as, what is implied to lie below, beyond and not so readily accessible. To visually unearth or explore mentally, visually and viscerally each piece hypothetically raises many questions.  Do we as individuals and societies live on the surface of our existence? What are we borrowing from or extending to other generations to perhaps satisfy our immediate desires or needs?What will our present day art and tools say to those who follow us? What Are we leaving behind? Do we own our tools or do they own us? Ashes to ashes, dust to dust is a moniker to what is historically dead, but dust does rise.To which issues do we return and revisit for generations to come?

While I am the product of an agrarian environment and love  the  land, landscape is not my artistic focus.Like Picasso, I am inclined to paint objects and scenes as I think them, not as I see them. Never the less, I have included some landscape images, especially those that were done on my family farm, Berkeley.

This work is done on kumohada(mashi) paper. This paper is made in Japan by one family only and is considered the strongest paper in the world.It is used to make screens and walls in Japanese homes.I chose to cut it and expose the edges, as I find the fiber element beautiful. When you work on kumohada with natural materials adhered by nikawa, glass in not necessary for protection; therefore, allowing for an up close and personal appreciation for the surface of the piece. I feel very fortunate to have been introduced to this paper, Japanese minerals and other products associated with the Nihonga tradition of painting and will continue my use of them.