Statements

Paintings

My paintings reference the landscape, both urban and rural, and explore relationships between architecture, geometry, color and texture. I work with thick applications of oil paint mixed directly on the canvas, and use a range of flat tools intended for applying drywall compound. Areas of the surface are built, layered, mixed and remixed as the paintings evolve. I am interested in the push and pull of color and form in space, with no direct reference point, where depth of field, scale and perspective all come into question. My process involves intense physical interaction that focuses on balancing structure with improvisation in an ongoing effort to fit disparate parts into a cohesive whole that is at once tectonic and organic. I see my work as a process of self-discovery as I seek to unearth hidden truths, connect the disparate parts and make sense of internal and external inconsistencies and contradictions.

Works on Paper

My experimental drawings and mixed media works on paper appropriate concepts from a wide variety of sources: gender studies, physics, nature, mathematics, metaphysics and computer coding. Interested in the hidden systems, structures and energies we sense (or even know through science) but cannot see, I explore a world where these systems are made visual. What does it look like when space bends? How do we understand and visualize time that isn’t linear? What are the hidden forces influencing our relationships? Working in discrete series, each question provides a starting point for exploration and experimentation.

Mixed Media

My mixed media woven paintings grapple with concerns about the environment and with the material waste derived from the practice of making art. Scraps of canvas used for stretching supports pile up. Concerned with waste and my responsibility as an artist producing material objects, this part of my practice focuses on reusing materials in an effort to reduce my footprint. Taking on a life of their own, these works developed into long term series and offer a break from my typical ways of working while offering new paths of experimentation and exploration.

Land Acknowledgement

I would like to acknowledge that the work documented here is inspired by the land where I live, currently known as Alameda, County, California. This is the unceded territory of xucyun (Huichin), the original landscape of the Chochenyo speaking Lisjan Ohlone people, the successors of the sovereign Verona Band of Alameda County, California. As such, I recognize and honor the original and current caretakers of this land, water and air, the Ohlone people and all of their descendants past, present and future.

For information please visit www.muwekma.org and Sogoreate-landtrust.org