My art explores the
visual language, life force, and essence of natural forms,
including my own body. I am currently investigating the threads of
life inside myself (and all of us) and how they connect with the
rest of nature.
I want to make art that is healthy for the artist, the viewer, and the earth. I’m using old clothing, bedding and towels; mine or other peoples. I draw with burnt wood and iron ore I collected on the beach. I paint with homemade vegetable dyes; Onion skin makes a light yellow, beet juice can be deep magenta and walnuts give a rich brown. I use thread left behind by my Grandmother. There is a lot of life and love in these materials and they are a source of inspiration.
My current process is like a meditation. I often listen to Buddhist teachings, especially Thich Naht Hahn’s talk on “Flower Arranging”, while I work. First I choose or create a surface. This can involve cutting, ripping, and sewing used fabric. Then, I stand, sit or lie on the surface, and I trace where my body connects with the ground. This tracing is an internal representation of my body; it represents what I feel, not what is seen from outside. I feel the peace of stillness. A lotus form, or a pair of feet often emerges: this is the beginning.
I then paint the life form in front of me. I painted a Persian cyclamen plant. The life force pulsed up through the thick red stems of new growth. The sun coursed through the green blue leaves and bright magenta petals danced. I traced my body: my thighs, my knees, my feet resting on the ground, the breath in my belly, breath and energy moving up my torso and out toward my shoulder.
I painted the life that makes me and this plant parts of one whole—there is no true separation. We share the air, we share the sunlight, we share life energy inside us, and around us. I feel the roots moving downward, searching out moisture in the soil and sew a red thread of life force up from walnut stained roots through stems. Then I feel my fingers holding the brush soaked with beet juice, my hand does a petal dance.
My images are symmetrical, but loose and messy. There is a focus on the core or center. Our bodies are symmetrical and our life energy comes from our core. There is a natural harmony in symmetry. I like my art to be messy, open, free and spacious. Leaving the roughness, the messiness “gives it a little bit of space” as Kiki Smith says*. Our bodies are full of idiosyncratic, unique, irregularities. I let irregularities exist in my art. The spontaneity of life is in the process of creation, and the object created is alive.
My art focuses on the place where I meet with the life surrounding me. When I take risks, keeping my breath, heart, hand and eye open and connected, energy comes out into my art. I hope my art can be a form of love, a place to feel and a space to breathe in freedom.
* interviewed in Art/New York No. 40
I want to make art that is healthy for the artist, the viewer, and the earth. I’m using old clothing, bedding and towels; mine or other peoples. I draw with burnt wood and iron ore I collected on the beach. I paint with homemade vegetable dyes; Onion skin makes a light yellow, beet juice can be deep magenta and walnuts give a rich brown. I use thread left behind by my Grandmother. There is a lot of life and love in these materials and they are a source of inspiration.
My current process is like a meditation. I often listen to Buddhist teachings, especially Thich Naht Hahn’s talk on “Flower Arranging”, while I work. First I choose or create a surface. This can involve cutting, ripping, and sewing used fabric. Then, I stand, sit or lie on the surface, and I trace where my body connects with the ground. This tracing is an internal representation of my body; it represents what I feel, not what is seen from outside. I feel the peace of stillness. A lotus form, or a pair of feet often emerges: this is the beginning.
I then paint the life form in front of me. I painted a Persian cyclamen plant. The life force pulsed up through the thick red stems of new growth. The sun coursed through the green blue leaves and bright magenta petals danced. I traced my body: my thighs, my knees, my feet resting on the ground, the breath in my belly, breath and energy moving up my torso and out toward my shoulder.
I painted the life that makes me and this plant parts of one whole—there is no true separation. We share the air, we share the sunlight, we share life energy inside us, and around us. I feel the roots moving downward, searching out moisture in the soil and sew a red thread of life force up from walnut stained roots through stems. Then I feel my fingers holding the brush soaked with beet juice, my hand does a petal dance.
My images are symmetrical, but loose and messy. There is a focus on the core or center. Our bodies are symmetrical and our life energy comes from our core. There is a natural harmony in symmetry. I like my art to be messy, open, free and spacious. Leaving the roughness, the messiness “gives it a little bit of space” as Kiki Smith says*. Our bodies are full of idiosyncratic, unique, irregularities. I let irregularities exist in my art. The spontaneity of life is in the process of creation, and the object created is alive.
My art focuses on the place where I meet with the life surrounding me. When I take risks, keeping my breath, heart, hand and eye open and connected, energy comes out into my art. I hope my art can be a form of love, a place to feel and a space to breathe in freedom.
* interviewed in Art/New York No. 40