- Georgia O’Keeffe
I’ve always been an artist; falling in love with the materiality of painting started when I was a small child. Manipulating color, shape, textures and making something out of nothing keeps me exploring.Making paintings, drawings, sculptures in any media has helped define the world for me. Art making and living in the world of artists has always been the place I am most content.
I hope my work offers someone an invitation to look beyond the facts, to see the relationship of things and stories contained within the images.
My father immigrated after WWII from Europe but had spent all of his life in Indonesia. He married my mother who grew up in New York with three generations sharing a cold water flat in the city. They moved nineteen times during the first twenty years of marriage. Three kids, two dogs, one cat and the two of them traveled to Texas, California, Taiwan, Holland, Colorado, New Jersey, Minnesota, and finally Arizona.
Learning to articulate life’s experiences through an artist’s viewpoint helped me make sense of the constant change of environment and temperament of my family. Many times the narrative of my work looks back at history to explain the present.
I graduated from the University of Kansas and then went on to pursue my MFA at the University of Washington in Seattle. In Seattle I found a thriving art world and art community. I later moved to the southwest where I raised my two sons. While raising my sons, I owned a Pilates and Gyrotonic Studio in the foothills of Tucson.
My inspiration comes from family folklore, cultural mythology, the animal world, and figurative work. The work is a conversation between materials and the
subconscious.
I work in oil, acrylic, oil stick, wood panels, canvas and paper.
I look for connections and allow myself to choose any images that help convey the story I want to explore in each painting. I hope to create tension by combining lyrical and disturbing imagery. I hope this juxtaposition compels the viewer to inquire into my narrative more deeply. My desire is to conjure up the existential themes of struggle, loss and connection.