Artist Statement
The current body of work emerges from pieces created in the late 1990s. The new paintings continue to layer paper and acrylic glazes, building up flexible two-dimensional surfaces into almost three-dimensional form. The drawings mix graphite and oil pastel, while the monoprints utilize Japanese and other special papers.
The recent paintings combine a range of papers with linen, canvas pieces, residue, or remnants of works-in-progress. There is a purposeful use of "natural " edges of the papers as they are applied, controlled, and refined to save raw asymmetrical shapes. These works are improvisations which allow the elements to co-exist in their varied forms. As pieces fall onto the table or floor, they might be placed one upon another, cut, torn, or reused. Subtle transitions of hue are created by under-painting with flat color and then applying translucent glazes.
The works often develop over weeks and months and segments must hang to stretch or contract as they dry. The layered paper shapes may appear delicate but they are strong, flexible structures with " inherent memory", returning to their original shapes as they are rehung in different environments. The new two-sided pieced are hung to reveal contrasting states of feeling on each side.
In all of this work is a response to "memory experiences", including a curiosity about heritage and Indigenous-American culture, growing up in Alaska, traveling, and moving from place to place, a symbolic retracing of the paths of the ancestors. Abstraction in the current works plays upon the ironies arising from cultural confusion, distraction, and edited social language. A specific piece may respond to the subconscious, a childhood memory, poetry, music, or the studio garden.
The artist’s intention is for the viewer to experience the lusciousness of color shapes, linear variations, and the luminosity of glazes next to opaque forms, allowing a kind of sensuousness spirituality in the juxtaposition of visual mystery.
|
