Work • materials • studio • Process •
Installations • Dog
Painting directly on a glassy surface affords me the ability to pull colors to a delicate translucency, to blend seamlessly and subtlety to create a glow—the ethereal feeling of light.
I brought gold onto the surfaces to highlight that these clouds were appearing behind a surface; that they were contained. I was identifying more with my anger and thinking of myself as it’s author and voice. I was thinking about misogyny limiting the expansiveness of this feminine, atmospheric color—and then imagining an infinite sky of this atmosphere.
During a collaboration with dancer Rebekah Hampton Barger at OZ Arts, I began to think of cultural messaging as a subtle weapon. Small brass tubes, barely detectable from a distance, were drilled into the surface of the painting, becoming a metaphor for the funneling of these messages. Gold paint dribbles from each penetration on the internal surface of the work.
Grief, for me, has felt like a thousand swords to the heart—emotion creating a physical sensation in the body. Awareness that stops the mind has a similar, piercing effect.
My process involves literally and carefully drilling into the smooth reflective surface of my paintings, and hammering in these metal tubes. They penetrate the surface and protrude into the space they inhabit...bursting off the wall, out of 2D into 3D. This imagery calls to mind so many different symbols for me.
Horizontally, here, I am see sticks poking through the surface of water, disrupting the current. I think of the bow and arrow being an extension of the psyches focus and desire, hitting targets that cannot be outrun. Sea urchins and porcupines and their quilled defense come to mind.
I think of the phallic shapes piercing my feminine color palette, and the cultural manifestations of that metaphor in our lived experience. And, conversely, I think of expansion: the feeling of leaping out of your skin, of taking up your space, of extending yourself outward.
Light has always been an important aesthetic in my art practice. Recently, I have been in a season of play/research with light, sound and vibration. I’m working towards a series of sculptures that will encompass all of these elements.
