Artist Statement
My Paintings
My abstract landscape paintings come from nature. Each painting is a personal experience felt through nature, becoming memorial and spiritual encounters. By recording the light and the temperature, I re-create the moment when the sky touches the earth.
Each composition consists of pure emotion and personal growth. The process begins with mixing colors, blending them into pure atmospheric sensations. With this process, I can create the illusion of space, and depth. I apply layers of paint until I am satisfied with my collection of colors and movement.
When my blended mixtures are complete, I start making my marks. The dots and short lines may be directional or purely decorative, they are meant to lead us in and around the composition. The same way the leaves on a tree lead us from branch to branch.
In each painting I have attached one or more small shaped pencil drawings. The pencil drawings represent our interaction with nature. I call the small drawings, the human touch, mimicking the act of touching a leaf or picking up a rock.
Balancing the small drawings with each composition is a challenge, becoming the ultimate contrast between painting and drawing.
I paint for myself, pure pleasure, and enjoyment. I love sharing my work with people that may feel the same.
My work is universal, and it communicates with everyone. I feel that it is important to appreciate our surroundings and each other.
The North Carolina light provides a great deal of inspiration for my artwork.
My Prints
I use water-base Akua inks, heavy weight papers and light weight papers when I print. I like the textures some of the Japanese rice papers have to offer. I also like the thickness the arches and B.F.K. brand papers have.
The techniques I use are etching, drypoint, mezzotint, aquatint, linocut, woodcut and monotype. Some are more involved than others. The challenges are different in each technique.
The different techniques help with my mark making in my paintings.
The collagraph is also fun and challenging, I enjoy the mixed-media approach with the collagraph.
The prints, like the paintings, are very spiritual, the colors are pure and the interaction with nature is as pleasing.
I like to create representational and abstract encounters with my prints. Both interpretations lead into the abstract world I am so involved with.
My print editions are small and limited. I try to spend most of my time on my paintings
My Installations with Sound
My installations consist of over three hundred 4-inch by 4-inch abstract landscape paintings on stretched canvases. No two paintings are the same and not all the paintings will be exhibited at one time (unless the space can accommodate three-hundred 4-inch by 4-inch canvases spaced 1 inch and a half apart from each other). The installation could work for any shaped room, corner or space. Some of my smaller installations consist of twenty-five to thirty paintings, in a very small room. Some may also consist of 4 to 8 paintings.
This idea for my installations came from my exhibition at the Nature and Science Museum in Raleigh. The exhibition contained a series of small paintings, 12” x 16”, 11” x 14” and 8” x10”. When I arrived for the opening, the director of the art gallery, Brad Thompson had done a beautiful job hanging the show. I loved how the paintings looked along the walls of the gallery, they all looked as though they could be construed as one piece.
The next day I started my new project, three hundred 4-inch by 4-inch abstract landscape paintings on stretched canvass. I thought three-hundred pieces would be a good start.
Working on this idea has given me a very personal and precious experiences, The line created by the canvases and the bird sounds, produced the illusion of being in the woods, or in a park.
The installation reads like a surrealistic dream and peaceful encounter. Some mentioned, that the installation had become a meditative experience for them. That makes me incredibly happy and I wish to create more spaces with my work.
I provide the sound machine, set to birds, but some have told me that they sometimes listen to classical music instead. I think that is wonderful.
I have installed a few private installations with sound, but because they have become private mediation rooms, I could not photograph them.