Art speaks the soul’s language. It affirms the healing recognition of our interconnections and of the sense that we are part of something larger than ourselves. When we embrace life its fullness, we find much that has been unacknowledged, unrecognized, or concealed. My work encourages revealing and integrating all aspects of or humanity: the shadow, the primal, and the sense of ourselves as modern beings. Manifestations of Eros, the life force, in art as in life, serve as means by which we more fully inhabit our humanity. To encompass this fullness, my work encourages the bypassing of logic and linear thinking that can be barriers to apprehending the sacred. It seeks to evoke what the poet Lorca called the Duende, the presence of death in life. My work is about Eros, reclaiming sexuality to the realm of the sacred and celebrating passion and paradox.
To obtain unconscious material, my work begins as improvisations. With brushes or pencils or charcoal in each hand, I close my eyes and allow the medium to move along the surface of the paper, canvas or encaustic covered wood. Then I open my eyes and respond to the marks. Thus a composition develops. Beginning with chaos, I gradually harmonize the elements within each piece. With the paintings, I add countless layers of oil paint thinned with medium, often scratching thorough layers to reveal what is underneath. I sometimes collage on bits of drawings. This technique creates a depth, surface texture, and sense of mystery that invite the viewer to look loser.
This collaboration with the unconscious locates the work in the sacred province of Chaos, the irrational. The layering and texture allude to layers of reality and meaning, the passage of time, the decay and transformation of memory and substance. The ancient medium of encaustic both enhances and corresponds to the primal quality in my work. I use language and writing within my work not only for their evocative poetic value, but also as metaphors for formal structure, culture, cultural transmission, logic, and linear thinking. Breaking letters and numbers down to their pure abstract content, devoid of external referential meaning suggests the imitations of language and linear thinking and the mutability of human constructions. While some of the lettering spells words, some letters are unmoored from language. Other markings resemble lettering, suggesting a native tongue just beyond grasp.
To really see my work, one must slow down, be present, observe closely. The abrasions and translucence reveal an accumulation of subterranean layers that in turn suggest the possibility of magic available to those who plumb their own and life’s depths.
To obtain unconscious material, my work begins as improvisations. With brushes or pencils or charcoal in each hand, I close my eyes and allow the medium to move along the surface of the paper, canvas or encaustic covered wood. Then I open my eyes and respond to the marks. Thus a composition develops. Beginning with chaos, I gradually harmonize the elements within each piece. With the paintings, I add countless layers of oil paint thinned with medium, often scratching thorough layers to reveal what is underneath. I sometimes collage on bits of drawings. This technique creates a depth, surface texture, and sense of mystery that invite the viewer to look loser.
This collaboration with the unconscious locates the work in the sacred province of Chaos, the irrational. The layering and texture allude to layers of reality and meaning, the passage of time, the decay and transformation of memory and substance. The ancient medium of encaustic both enhances and corresponds to the primal quality in my work. I use language and writing within my work not only for their evocative poetic value, but also as metaphors for formal structure, culture, cultural transmission, logic, and linear thinking. Breaking letters and numbers down to their pure abstract content, devoid of external referential meaning suggests the imitations of language and linear thinking and the mutability of human constructions. While some of the lettering spells words, some letters are unmoored from language. Other markings resemble lettering, suggesting a native tongue just beyond grasp.
To really see my work, one must slow down, be present, observe closely. The abrasions and translucence reveal an accumulation of subterranean layers that in turn suggest the possibility of magic available to those who plumb their own and life’s depths.
KEY TO THE GOLDEN REALM oil
OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS oil, encaustic, mixed media on wood 13 1/2" x 11"
Native Tongue oil and encaustic on wood 30" x 40"
To Open the Sky oil and encaustic on wood 30" x 40"
DREAM oil and encaustic on wood 30" x 40"
DANCE oil and encaustic on wood 30" x 40"
Then Rain 30" x 40" oil and encaustic on wood
Hiding the Ocean oil, encaustic, rag on wood10" x 13"
Hunger 9" x 10" oil, encaustic, and rag on wood
Aboriginal Head 9" x 10" oil and encaustic on wood
