My Statement:
For the major part of my career, I imagine that I would be classified as a Post Modernist Surrealist . The sources I drew upon were art’s master painters, Greek myth, and surrealism. Iconography broadened the scope of my work. Quite often the infusion of recognizable master paintings with animals or other objects was to not only make a humanistic statement but a political one as well. In the beginning, I was devoted to making a feminist statement. Cross Over (sold) and the Siren's Lure (lithograph still available) draw heavily on Christian iconography, surrealism, Greek mythology, and Haitian art.
1978-2010: I am a fine arts oil painter & water colorist; lithographic, intaglio, and dry point print maker; and most of all visual story teller. My stories, late 70’s - 80’s were concerned with feminism, childhood & adolescence, domestic and endangered animals, and the environment. I believed that art could make people think about the issues. Limited edition hand pulled prints and paintings were exhibited, published, and collected from New York City to Beijing. My portraits attempted to capture those relaxed and impromptu moments of the sitter. The garb, body language, and environment tell all. Animal portraits were always rich in attitude and humor. When the sitter was accompanied by their pet(s) a new dimension of mutual dependence, love, adoration, and sensitivity entered into the arena. This is where the story becomes a memorable moment which interested me. Many of my endangered animals in master paintings were meant to be political statements concerning the preservation of biodiversity verses that of art works. Although I have never been able to trek off into the jungles for gorillas or the arctic for the polar bear, I can make their plight known in paintings. There are over 30 oil paintings and lithographs in this endangered animal series.
In the works of the late 90’s, the environment and with it the loss of animal/avian habitats were my main focus. I used a postage stamp edge on many avian and pachyderm lithographs. In computer assisted art works, I also put 29¢ to denote how little was spent on the preservation of diversity. To lighten the powerful affect of these works, I often injected humor. From the endangered animals, I branched out into our significant others, our pets. Here, the paintings focus predominantly on attitudes.
I believe that my works from the late 1970’s - 2010 are self explanatory. All this being said, it is the viewer who brings their own thoughts, education, and emotion to my works. They give my work its meaning. I only provide the first impetus in a glimpse of an idea.
2010-present: Each work consists of many layers of paint, thought, erasures, repainting, scraping, drawing, and feeling my way in increments while searching for the whole. This has been the most difficult task for me. It is a totally different way of seeing the world from my surrealistic imaginary scapes of the past. Everything I’ve learned goes into the work: composition, line, shapes, textures, color, expression, brush stroke, simplification, etc. My abstracts are usually based on something familiar from our environment, whether it be physical or something we just sense or feel. It is the act of taking the familiar and seeing it differently.
I will be updating my current works as they come off of the easel or printing press. There is a button to transport you immediately to my most current works. The medium is still variable: monoprints, acrylics, pastels.
1978-2010: I am a fine arts oil painter & water colorist; lithographic, intaglio, and dry point print maker; and most of all visual story teller. My stories, late 70’s - 80’s were concerned with feminism, childhood & adolescence, domestic and endangered animals, and the environment. I believed that art could make people think about the issues. Limited edition hand pulled prints and paintings were exhibited, published, and collected from New York City to Beijing. My portraits attempted to capture those relaxed and impromptu moments of the sitter. The garb, body language, and environment tell all. Animal portraits were always rich in attitude and humor. When the sitter was accompanied by their pet(s) a new dimension of mutual dependence, love, adoration, and sensitivity entered into the arena. This is where the story becomes a memorable moment which interested me. Many of my endangered animals in master paintings were meant to be political statements concerning the preservation of biodiversity verses that of art works. Although I have never been able to trek off into the jungles for gorillas or the arctic for the polar bear, I can make their plight known in paintings. There are over 30 oil paintings and lithographs in this endangered animal series.
In the works of the late 90’s, the environment and with it the loss of animal/avian habitats were my main focus. I used a postage stamp edge on many avian and pachyderm lithographs. In computer assisted art works, I also put 29¢ to denote how little was spent on the preservation of diversity. To lighten the powerful affect of these works, I often injected humor. From the endangered animals, I branched out into our significant others, our pets. Here, the paintings focus predominantly on attitudes.
I believe that my works from the late 1970’s - 2010 are self explanatory. All this being said, it is the viewer who brings their own thoughts, education, and emotion to my works. They give my work its meaning. I only provide the first impetus in a glimpse of an idea.
2010-present: Each work consists of many layers of paint, thought, erasures, repainting, scraping, drawing, and feeling my way in increments while searching for the whole. This has been the most difficult task for me. It is a totally different way of seeing the world from my surrealistic imaginary scapes of the past. Everything I’ve learned goes into the work: composition, line, shapes, textures, color, expression, brush stroke, simplification, etc. My abstracts are usually based on something familiar from our environment, whether it be physical or something we just sense or feel. It is the act of taking the familiar and seeing it differently.
I will be updating my current works as they come off of the easel or printing press. There is a button to transport you immediately to my most current works. The medium is still variable: monoprints, acrylics, pastels.