Creating art is a spiritual experience. I believe that my soul is in a constant search of something to create, something to transform and express as my own. My approach to drawing and painting reveals my emotional and spiritual response to my subject.
I am inspired by botanical life, plants and flowers, their leaves, petals, buds and stamens, especially in exploring beyond their immediate and recognizable physical presence. My study of botanical illustration is the source of my concept of dissecting a plant or flower, then depicting these parts in a composition. As I depart from realistic representation, an abstraction and stylization emerges. I am also inspired by the sculptural shapes of fruit, sea shells and pebbles. There is a drama in their simplicity of form and color.
As I work with my subject matter, I extract its unique qualities of shape, color, surface patterns, and the atmosphere immediately surrounding it. I begin a playful interaction of manipulating brush and paint, or pastel and charcoal.
I often use the compositional formats of diptychs, triptychs and grids that can dramatically illustrate my fascination with the individual parts of my subject. With a flower, for example, it could be a single flower petal, the stamens, the bud and the seedpod portrayed in a four-part grid. Another composition that I employ is enlarging a single significant part of my subject, such as one flower petal, and painting it onto a large canvas to exaggerate its presence and important characteristics.
I am influenced by the American Modern Movement that began around 1905, and the Stieglitz circle of artists, such as Georgia O’Keefe, Charles Demuth, Marsden Hartley, Arthur Dove and Imogene Cunningham. Current Expressionism is also an influence with a particular interest in Pat Steir, Jennifer Bartlett, and Jim Dine.
Bio
I was born in Chicago and raised in Evanston, Illinois. In my early teens, I began visiting the Art Institute of Chicago. When I visited a retrospective exhibit of Georgia O'Keefe, her work made a remarkable impression on me. Her way of seeing forms of nature, flowers, landscapes and buildings, her choice of color, rendering, and composition all paralleled what was forming in my artistic development. As a high school student I became influenced by surrealism, especially seeing the world from a different viewpoint. During my senior year, I attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
I received my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Southern Oregon State College (now University) in 1991, and my focus in drawing and painting received numerous awards and scholarships. During this time I worked as assistant registrar and preparator at the Schneider Museum of Art in Ashland, Oregon where I gained knowledge of presentation and professionalism.
I exhibit my work through a variety of venues that include juried art competitions, one-woman shows, fine art fairs & festivals, and galleries such as the Camas Gallery - Salem Art Association, ArtCentric in Corvallis, and Bassetti’s Crooked Arbor Gardens in Seattle, Washington. Corporate collections that include my work are the Salem Hospital Family Birth Center, Salem Electric and the Salem Vascular Clinic.
I am currently employed by Willamette University as the secretary in the Department of Music. Previously I have worked for arts organizations that include the Silverton Arts Association, STAGE, Inc. at the Historic Elsinore Theatre, Mid-Valley Arts Council and the Oregon Arts Commission. I am a board and founding member of Artists in Action, a non-profit group of artists in Salem. www.artistsinaction.org
I maintain a 400 sq. ft. art studio adjacent to my home. |
