ARTIST STATEMENT

I am a sensory illusionist.

I gather the experience of being in a moment, at a place, at a time. I use that information to create the image. It is the sense of how the light and the color filters through the image and the atmosphere you might be surrounded by at that moment in time. There is a thread of something real that exists above everything else. And in trying to reach the truth, you are trying to make it real through beauty, through something beautiful. In that ultimate moment of sensory experience also exists a glimmer of hope, the promise of something bigger than we are.

My goal is to make artwork that is so beautiful it cuts to the heart of what is true, to create art that is of this moment but exists as something timeless. It resonates with the a person viewing the work as real although it is not quite realistic. It has meaning, although that is not specifically stated because of its use of color or symbolism, or imagery.

SHORT BIO

When I was six years old I went to the room where my grandmother was sewing something on a sewing machine.  She was self taught at design and construction, but I now believe she could have made anything. I asked her to sew a dish towel in several places, she asked me why and I explained that it would become a fashionable carry-all.  She immediately told my mother and the two of them found art classes for me to attend. Since that time, I have been using many mediums to explore “truth” through creativity.

I was lucky to have grown up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where there were incredible arts programs, including through the Carnegie Museum.  I began my arts education through the public schools and in the museum programs. Later, I attended the Tyler School of Art, Temple University in Philadelphia and Rome, Italy.  I left school for a year to move to Los Angeles, California and received my B.F.A. from the University of Southern California. Subsequently, I took postgraduate courses at UCLA.

Years later, after moving to New Mexico, the Southwest inspired my multi-dimensional art practice.

BIOGRAPHY

I was lucky to have grown up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where there were incredible arts programs, including through the Carnegie Museum. I began my arts education through public education and in the museum programs. Later, I attended Tyler School of Art, Temple University in Philadelphia and Rome, Italy. I left school for a year to move to Los Angeles, California and received my B.F.A. from University of Southern California. Subsequently, I took post graduate courses at UCLA. After, moving to New Mexico, I was greatly influenced by the atmosphere and environment and that influenced me to evolve the style of painting I call, Sculpted Paintings. There is the artist's intention behind the work, there is also the meaning the viewer has upon seeing the work. Combined, the work's meaning is elevated.

I work primarily on created surfaces that are acrylic and canvas on canvas and varying texture and usually employing mixed media. It gives me the freedom to work fast or slow and I am able to make choices about where I want the work to go with out the canvas getting away from me. When you are working on a complicated subject the intersection of material and subject can get out of control and ruin the painting. The materials I use, allow a certain space in time. One of the paintings was chosen by Saatchi Gallery to show electronically during the show about the Rolling Stones.Another cool moment was, two of the paintings were recently shown on the twenty- five story billboard in Times Square, in New York. One of the pieces is called: United States of Gun. It is an American Flag interpretation using Guns to replace the stars. The stripes tell a weather worn story of time and effort to defend and remake our history.

The other painting shown there: Another American Flag. A beautiful landscape that speaks of the hope and myth surrounding the flag's iconic image. This painting is based mostly on the sky and our aspiration as a country, to aspire to higher goals. One of my recent one-women gallery shows was in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It was called Tread Softly, inspired by the Yeats poem: "Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven". There were thirty paintings,all created within a two year time frame, all relating to our shared aspiration as dreamers for a better life, wishing for a safer, stronger,more evolved future.

The flag as an iconic image touches almost every one in a personal way, it begs further exploration. The work has taken on a life of its own through these paintings and I am intrigued with the possibilities of where it could go and what it could become. This past year I began a new series of paintings called, The Money Pieces. These paintings combine the materials and iconic references of money landscape images, the flag and other more personal images. In one piece called Money to Burn, I have a bonfire burning paper money, bills blowing through the air and Money that is growing on the trees. Some incorporate the United States Flag, but I am working on using the flag of other countries also, as it wrestles with the politics of world leaders, currency, and changing norms.

CV

 ART IN PUBLIC PLACES

American Cancer Foundation

Carlsbad Mental Health Center

First National Bank

Times Square 2014

The Louvre Museum in Paris, 2015

Scope Basel/Miami Beach 2016

GALLERIES

ARC Gallery, Chicago

Wiford Gallery Santa Fe, NM 

Alpha Gallery Denver, CO 

Gallery G Pittsburgh, PA 

Parker Blake Denver, CO 

Art Center Pacific Palisades, CA 

Tohono Chul Gallery Tucson, AZ 

Gorman Fine Arts Los Angeles, CA 

Kathleen Warner Gallery  Durango, CO 

Gallery 20  Farmington, NM 

Durango Arts Center Durango, CO 

One Caroline Place Santa Fe, NM 

One Artist Road Santa Fe, NM

Maui Gallery  Maui, HI 

EXHIBITIONS

Four Corners Juried Show

City of Farmington One Woman Show

Three Rivers Art Juried Exhibit

Farmington Annual Art Auction

Times Square Summer 2014

Collected Works

Artists of New Mexico

The Louvre Museum2015 Summer Show

Wiford Gallery 2015 Treading on My Dreams Solo Show

Saatchi Gallery in Paris, Exhibitionism,2016

Art Basel Miami/Scope

4 Times Square

Her  New York

PRIVATE COLLECTIONS AND COMMISSIONS

Beecham Products, Inc.

Dane Advertising

Claude Brinegar

Lloyd Cymrot

Cohen Fine Arts

Stephen & Wendy Siegel

Hal & Beverly Haddon

Rodman Boston, Jr.

David Abbey

Robin Ley

Beth Ritter

Barbara Baker

Steve & Jane Hochberg

Sandy Villa

Steven Cuden

Karl Racine

CHARITIES

Boys & Girls Club

The Horse Shelter

Therapeutic Riding Services of Colorado

Bandanas & Boots

Buckaroo Ball of Santa Fe, NM

Art Feast, Santa Fe, NM

BOOKS

Sculpted Paintings, 2011

Our American Journey, 2015

The Voice of Artists, 2016

PRINT COVERAGE

The Santa Fe New Mexican

The Santa Fe New Mexican Pasatiempo

The Magazine

The Daily Times

Durango Herald

The Denver Post

EDUCATION

Tyler School of Art, Temple University Philadelphia, PA

Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Rome, Italy

University of Southern California, Degree in Fine Arts (BFA), 1979