STATEMENT

My multi-media work is conceptually grounded in disparate images, ideas and artifacts from the real world: nature, geometry, dance, architecture, feminism, history, and fashion, to name a few. They are sorted and mediated in the imaginative chambers of my mind. My process is often based on improvisation, with a plethora of materials and formal elements as stimuli. Conversely, I may begin my work with a specific concept, only to discover other messages have been brewing and emanate unexpectedly as the process progresses. The resulting imagery is also very dependent on my psychic mindset and physical environment of the moment.

Movement and contradiction are two dominating formal themes in my work. My experience with improvisational dance brings an acute sense of movement and space, while unexpected incongruities create visual-emotional tensions; discomforting for me and daring the viewer to become fully engaged. Space – real or represented – is ever present in my mind.

While manipulating paint, ink, foam, pompoms, glitter, paper and found objects, I am investing a kinetic quality into inert materials, affecting self-discovery shot through with moments of power and anxiety. Multi-media provides a seductive, fluid structure for exploring compelling contradictions: still vs. energetic, present vs. past, ordinary vs. sublime, fragility vs. strength, bizarre vs. logical, real vs. surreal, and one of my most cherished pairing, chaos versus order. My fascination with chaos theory and the “edge of chaos” continues to permeate my work. I am willingly confused by the often-shifting relationship between a loose gesture and a hard-edged cut; between flow and force; between flatness and dimensionality. These opposites co-exist and agitate within physical and psychic space. Although my imagery acts out an abstract fantasy in which I create playfulness, sadness, joy, pain, meaninglessness and/or beauty, it is not so far removed from the absurdities of everyday life.

Despite the looming disorder and gravity of the outside world, my processes and studio space allow my vocabulary to imbue unique meaning into each new work. I want the viewer to sense the confrontation, attraction and repulsion between forms. Their roles, whether played out in installation, collage, drawing or painting, create an interaction resulting in a new choreography.