Artist Statement

     I am a storyteller whose stories are told by those who view my work.

Color and energy play a significant part in the work I do. I want people to unabashedly and unapologetically fall in love with color. We have been taught to be sensible about color. What color goes with what color. What each color means. What colors are serious and what colors are frivolous. What a shame. My hope is that my work reveals the life and intrinsic beauty of every color. 

A little over ten years ago, I started experimenting with isopropyl alcohol and soft pastels as a way to both draw and paint on the same piece of work. I spent many playful years drawing and painting my inner world. Recently I began to yearn for the dark, lush colors of oil paint. I started out by gessoing paper and using oil paint medium with my dry pastels instead of isopropyl alcohol. I was able to get the deep, rich colors I craved. I confidently stretched a canvas and started painting with my oil paints. In a moment of clarity, I grabbed oil sticks and started drawing on my canvas. It was in that moment I discovered my direction. Drawing and painting had become so intertwined, I could not separate them. All these years, I was painting on my drawings but now I was drawing on my paintings. My journey is to blur the line between painting and drawing. 

I am enamored by the human form. Because there is a commonality in our human form, we often have a commonality in our physical experiences and emotional responses to those experiences. In today’s splintered society, it is hard to see the universal commonality of the human experience. I choose to focus on the universal experiences we share verses that which divides us. The stories in my work document my journey to understand what I see, feel and experience. The images I depict are allegories to explore our common experiences. Being able to connect in this subtle way makes our journey through life less lonely.