A lot of my work has elements from my surroundings and things that sneak into my dreams, so I try to pay attention to what is showing up. Using the things that ignite my creativity, help develop stories of everyday life. Sometimes, the underlying message has a deep sense of self and other times, it is playful. I paint from how I see and interpret life.
I intertwine things that I love or have loved as a child and weave them into the work. Patch-worked pieces that radiate with memories and feelings. My method shows the breakdown of layers and how that transcends through time and experiences. I use a deterioration process that reveals the beauty that exists through destruction, which is throughout our lives.
The act of viewing the work, gives us the opportunity to look at the piece with a personal perspective. What I intended for the piece is sometimes interpreted very differently. The viewer's opinion, as well as my own are both valid. It is yet another layer to it's meaning. What I find interesting, is that our outlook on life, through the painting, is universally personal. What I invite the viewer to do, is to look at the piece, honor their feeling of it and then to be open to it's many other revealing sheaths.
When I think of the layers of the painting, I think of how that represents the layers in someone’s life. There is good,bad and indifferent. Important, trivial and neutral. There are decisions that take you on a certain path and mistakes that take you on another. One is not necessarily better or worse, just different. I look at my work from the story it tells, the life that it has led.
My materials are primarily paper and acrylic. I love to use newspaper. It tells so much of everyday life that is here one moment and gone the next. The paper shows the day to day life as we know it. There are tragedies and triumphs, events of vast importance and the unessential. I mold the paper as if done by parents, by society or by one’s own unrealistic expectations. After the paper dries, the painting begins. Layer upon layer, covering up the past. Sometimes it stays hidden and sometimes it comes through as a constant reminder. As in life, age and deterioration set in, so I sand away the paper. What comes off is sometimes on purpose and sometimes it is a consequence of a previous step I have taken. There are choices and there are mistakes.
The particular application and type of materials, along with form, texture and color, help me examine hardship. Understanding the hardship, invites freedom and with that, releases raw creativity. When that is uncovered, the painting flows with purpose and holds space for gratitude. You see that transition but also see a beauty through that struggle. A beauty that is not traditional or expected. A beauty that has only manifested because of the uncertainty. The imperfect perfection.
