I am profoundly inspired by texture, discards and what lies beneath the surface. My primary art form has been in fashion design and the production of apparel. With that I am intrigued with hand stitched mark making and mixing garment construction concepts and compositions with a variety of mediums, including cloth assemblage, oil, acrylic and encaustic, to create surfaces that are both engaging and poetic.
As an observer of and a participant in the natural world, I cannot help but react with wonder, amusement, joy and curiosity to what I see and experience. These reactions compel me to paint from the heart, not with a historical or objective eye. As a result, my paintings become imagined settings, conveying feelings about a particular time and place or about the gifts of the earth. Unapologetically, I also react to places and objects through the lens of faith, a faith in a loving, actively involved creator.
My art represents a past of childhood abuse, addiction, and a life long struggle with mental illness. Trying to put things together over time, piece by piece with much thought and reflection until each piece fits precisely where I want it. It is much easier in art than in life. Art and life are one and the same to me. I hide things in my pieces as things about myself are still hidden in me, hopefully to be discovered. Putting a piece together takes a lot of time, just like putting a life back together. My time is spent searching for all those pieces in art and in life.
A long time theme of my family, circa 1940's-1950's in imagined but plausible poses, are in mixed media collage. Along side these images are portions of a more recent (last 10 years) theme of documenting Ozarks native rock masonry.
