Artist Statement
Becoming a multidisciplinary artist was a long process, unfolding over many years. As a very young child I was drawn to the arts. First to the performing arts, later to visual arts and art making. However, when I became a mother, I needed to put that part of my life on hold. Dabbling only occasionally for relaxation. I switched my focus to my career and raising my son. Twenty years later I would return to art in a very real way. While finishing my master’ program in Whole Systems Design, I was required to design and produce a pop-up book. This project stimulated that creative urge again and led me back to the part of myself that needed to make art. After playing with a wide variety of mediums and disciplines I started sculpting in clay and stone. As a Northwest artist I am perhaps best known for my stone sculpting which was my primary focus for seventeen years. Although I loved working in stone and my sculptures captured the interest of private collectors and gallery curators alike, something more was emerging. I think as time went on, I felt there was more of myself to find in my art making. So, I took a break from sculpting and began an art exploration, experimenting with a diversity of mediums, styles, and disciplines. I found it exhilarating to explore this wider range of creative expressions. The last few years I have focused mostly on Encaustic and Acrylic painting; experimenting with different art styles and often incorporating into these paintings’ other mediums such as pastels, oils, oil pastels, inks, and discovered objects.
I am fascinated by the complex interplay between line, form and space. Observing and experimenting with this interplay is the foundation of my creative inspiration. Observing this interplay in the world around me is a stimulus for creative ideas. Ideas that beg to be expressed into abstract and semi-abstract landscapes as well as most of my sculptures. On the other hand, I love the process of discovery. So, I will use a process of intuitively manipulating this line, form and space interplay, playing with it if you will, until I stir an emotional response in myself and then use that response to guide me in my creative process. This latter approach is usually operative when I am working on one of my geometric or free form abstracts.
Connection and contrast are common themes in my work. I’m moved and inspired by both the rawness and serene beauty in nature, and our primordial connection with the earth that sustains us. In addition, considering rituals and the stimulus of community influence also impacts my work. The whole question of how our individuality: our personal history, current mental, or emotions state, our physical orientation, our belief in and understanding of what is real or true can influence our personal perspective, has fascinated me since childhood. I often think about this as I’m working a piece. I toy with the idea that the observer and what is observed influence each other. I believe that art should transcend the mundane, it should be more than simply a depiction. I want the observer to communicate with my art, challenge their assumptions, co-create if you will. I hope they will ask themselves; what do I feel and think as I look at this piece and why?