About My Art
In the studio.

Artist Statement

My gentle to the soul, mixed media dreamscape paintings are narrative in nature. I use vintage postcards to set the scene for explorations of our inner landscape as it relates to our external world. The stamped figures of women in the paintings represent an archetypal Every Woman exploring her feelings as she journeys through life. I use multiple facets of symbolism because "meaning shapes seeing" and it allows the viewer to find layers of enchantment with each viewing.

 

My Art Process

I stumbled upon vintage postcards in a rare bookstore about 5 years ago. I bought a couple thinking that they would be useful as collage items. A week later I was driving on a winding country road with lots of open space around me and thinking about how much I love the “call of the open road” when it occurred to me that one of those postcards of a long lonesome highway at night would be perfect for expressing that feeling. My first painting using vintage postcards as the exterior setting for the interior landscape was ”The Call of the Open Road." I usually have an idea that I want to express then look for the perfect postcard but occasionally the postcard inspires the idea.

I have switched to a gessoed panel with 2 inch sides called “Ampersand”- there is no need for framing with these and the contemporary look works well with my subject matter. My earlier pieces use gessoed masonite for the painting surface and are custom framed. The first step is to choose a color from the postcard and paint the whole surface that color- that way the background color “pops” through the many layers as the painting progresses. I make a copy of the postcard(s) and attach the copy to the surface using painting tape so that the borders around the postcard retain the original background color. Using one or several of my figure stamps from my large collection, I usually stamp the figure(s) onto the original color. The stamps represent an archetypal “Every Woman” or women - the central figure(s) in the narrative of the painting. Then I begin painting - using acrylics, charcoal, pencil, oil pastels, plaster, wax, stencil paste, collage items -whatever seems most appropriate for the painting. I like to scratch & scrape into the surface revealing the background color and creating texture. The last thing I do is glue the original postcard (I never use copies) to the surface and then get it custom framed. It usually takes me several weeks to finish a painting.