When I begin a painting I begin a journey and I have no idea where I’ll end up. The journey is a quiet, solitary inner journey. It starts with a phrase, a place, a memory or a feeling. My process becomes a meditation, an offering of the sacred.
I begin by laying down multiple layers of contrasting color. Oil paint mixed with cold wax for body and depth. I begin to add or subtract by adding more layers or subtracting, scratching, or gouging out areas of color. I add marks, texture, color and line to tell this particular story. Texture consists of mementoes of bones, hair, dirt, leaves, letters or bits of insects. Mark making could be inspired by a satellite image, a poetic phrase or it could angry slashes or soft lines. At times my work is like an animal hide that is soft and worn and shows the beauty of the scar. At other times I’m reducing by excavating to show what lies beneath and or adding to create typography.
My work is my visual language that represents my history. I offer it to the viewer to have their own experience.
