24" x 16"
acrylic, oil pastel, pencil on panel
Artist statement:
I live and work in a converted church in Portland, Oregon, where I usually have a dozen paintings in progress at any one time. I create my work on canvas and wooden panels using acrylic paints, oil pastels, colored pencils, and screen printing. I move between paintings, allowing each work to influence the next.
I begin my paintings without a planned image or idea, applying paint with my hands and mixing color directly on the wood or canvas. I make marks, shapes, and lines with brushes, pencils, and pastels improvisationally. I respond to what emerges until something is triggered to take form—a moment when the imagery begins to resonate, a feeling that provokes a response, as if I become an observer to my own process and understanding.
Imagery is created and removed. I add and subtract ideas, figures, and forms, building one painting over another and creating a history of mixed ideas and experiences. Collisions and fragments are forced together, pulled into new shapes and spaces through the process of painting. I block out what was once important to reveal a new idea or image. A collection of imagery from different times and moods comes together to tell a story that can only be revealed by following intuition.
Through this process, I illuminate stories that were unknown at their beginnings—tales that evolve in response to themselves over time. The accumulation of feelings resonates and reveals itself until it becomes felt and understood.
My paintings are a search for contemporary mythology—the stories we create to understand ourselves, nature, fear, hope, and the unknown. Through intuition and accumulation, I build worlds where fragments of experience allow symbols and narratives emerge.