Artist Statement

Seeds, tubers, roots, and plants are visual metaphors for growth, change, and the unseen aspects in life. The plant world is gentle and patient with humanity, whispering the mystery of the spiritual while providing beauty and healing. For me, the natural world represents beauty and healing. The daily practice of working a surface becomes a symbol for working with soil and seeds; caring for the mind and heart in a way that is in union with the natural world.

Formally, my work connects with the feminine qualities of traditional domestic materials. I work with the surfaces of various fabrics and papers. Fabric allows the stitching of threads into its fibers and works easily with low-cost drawing materials to express the subtle magic called growth. In addition, I often utilize a mix-media approach of readily available marking tools such as color and ink pencils, water-soluble graphite sticks, pastels, encaustics, and watercolors. I use overlapping and transparent modulating shapes in expressive colors to imitate the subtle movements of growth and then combine them with graphite rich areas of lines rendered with a range of pencils to show a depth of textures. Lenox paper allows the 6H pencil to create an impression, a metaphor for working with soil and tender hearts of humankind. Pencils impress upon paper as a record of daily tasks. Watercolors portray beauty and healing that result from time spent with nature.

I work in a large format to create an atmosphere of mystery; to inspire awe and respect for the natural world. I would like the viewer to pause for a moment and be confronted by nature’s qualities of beauty, healing, and inherent knowledge of the spiritual. Let nature give understanding and comfort to the heart.