My paintings are about energy and freedom, gestural interpretations of what I see–feel in the whole of my environment. While my work is abstract, it is inspired by many sources—music; literature; and the contemporary cultural, environmental, and political climates. And even as an abstract painter, my work draws inspiration from the natural landscape.
I began incorporating the frottage process of rubbings/relief into my paintings around 2011 and have focused on trees for several years, often creating “rubbings” from the actual bark. To me, trees represent what has sustained us—and the vulnerability that lies ahead. In relief and rubbings, I juxtapose textures of industrial, human-made grids and meshes with organic textures such as tree bark. The contrast of the two creates a tension I see as a metaphor for our current environmental dilemma—human co-existence with the natural world.
In their mark-making and their application, the paintings relate to my earlier printmaking work, especially etching/intaglio and woodcut. I work on unstretched, raw canvas to achieve textured surfaces. Some paintings begin en plein air as rubbings on the large pines on my property, and are completed in the studio. Each painting becomes a kind of monotype.
Titles are always a cohesive and important element for each piece.
I have always worked in series and in a variety of sizes and have created, over the years, more than 20 series of works. I enjoy creating projects and a series allows me to concentrate on an idea, following a body of work through to a complete statement. These paintings are selected from a twelve-year period during which time I also created dozens of smaller works. But I find the large scale format freeing and exciting as a means of expression.
Whatever my source of inspiration, the element of chance is important to my process to foster spontaneity and surprise. And color—with the many emotional nuances it affords—is key!
My paintings are abstract but they develop through inspiration from a variety of sources. I draw from my everything that affects me in my total environment—cultural, political, or the natural landscape. Each painting has a “story”.
Exhibition Artworks 1, 2, 3
Three of my paintings are a response to the 9/11 attack ten years later. They were a follow-up to my series of 13 pastels drawings made in my New York home in the immediate aftermath of the attack. I wanted to see how I would feel creating pieces ten years after this catastrophic event. When I started, I tried hard to avoid the obvious verticality of the towers but each time I worked on an alternative proportion it didn’t feel right so I decided, after all, to go with tall verticals.
These pieces were also the first of my work with “frottage”. Essentially that involves making rubbings of textured surfaces, transferring the texture to the canvas. I work a lot on the floor and in creating these paintings I began to experiment with the process. They are done on unstretched, unprimed canvas to allow the texture to be achieved. I was a printmaker for many years and have always felt my painted work relates to my earlier prints. I like drawing and scratching around, as in etching, and I like woodcuts which this process comes closest to resembling. The paintings are actually monotypes in this way.
Exhibition Artworks 4 & 5
The next two paintings “Hope, and Disappointment” and “Orange Patch” are reactions to the 2016 Presidential Election. As I said in my general statement, I react to all things in my environment and this very important event demanded an expression in artwork. My paintings are like emotional landscapes—what’s going on in my life comes out in the work.
Exhibition Artworks 6, 7, 8, & 9
I work on all sizes of paintings but I love working large. After working smaller due to space constrictions, in the past few years I felt compelled to return to a larger size—67 x 46” in these four pieces. I like the freedom and energy a large canvas allows. These four paintings all use the frottage process and are the most recent work I’m presenting in this show, mostly from the last two years.
