"Art is the core of all my learning, a wondrous process — always offering a place to return and find more depth in my life.
I draw my work from my inner world. Conscious to maintain an active overview while allowing the art to direct, continually reminding myself to trust, get out of my own way and let the work guide and disclose."
I pull my work from my inner world. My painting is always ahead of me, disclosing and guiding into deeply energizing, if uncomfortable territory. My art process continually transforms my art work. I thrive in the challenge of radical new beginnings, letting go and trusting the unknown is essential for my development. I keep no area off limits: the amount of energy it takes to protect and control one space degrades everything around it. The outcome of my work is always unpredictable, though my process deliberate.
"Head Series" is a set of singular studies 48" X 48", painted in acrylic and mixed media on wood panel. I apply layers of both thick acrylic and fluid glazes with minimal lines of graphite speeding across the top layers, creating rich surfaces of ambiguity with glimpses of recognition. These large Heads consist of at least 15 to 20 underlying heads, creating a rich sizzle of under. These layers of chaos, partially forming multi-dimensional selves, do not come to quiet conclusions. They are messy - as human heads tend to be, wrought with struggle.
I am pushing the Heads toward the rawer and bolder, their chaos tempered with vulnerability. Bating accidents with immediacy, applying each layer to express randomness as simply one more layer in any Head, while I maintain an active overview which recognizes the vibrant energy of completion. In exploring this subject matter, I am acutely conscious of the different sources of my inner dialog: From my head? From my body? The head, chaotic thought, most often directed by violent contradiction. The body: more or less relief from thought. I am always aware, less of how head and body influence the layers in my Heads than that, simply, they do. My work is to express the vital interplay between the two, an interplay which creates identity.
Compared to the constant second guessing of the Head Series, the "Vertical Series" finds its destination peacefully. The Vertical Series is about trust, not questioning my intuition, and responding regardless of the guidance, while at the same time continuing to develop awareness as to when I need to balance the work with intellect. It is this intellectual side aEditnd its quality of raw boldness that inspired the Heads.
In painting I am focusing on the Heads, though sometimes I must return to the Vertical Series for some peace. I am working to develop a higher level of risk and exploration in my work, while continuing to find more depth in and through my art.
