Artist Statement
The current body of work began over a decade ago. Many of the paintings depict the lives of people the artist encountered while living part of each year in South Africa, and traveling extensively throughout sub-Saharan Africa. By painting the story of individuals, these works share a message of the human condition.
The events in the paintings encompass the time of apartheid in South Africa, the transition to a new political order, and the AIDS epidemic. These visual tales bear witness to the stories of people who otherwise would not be able to tell them. While these paintings are made with a personal approach, they are removed from a merely first person viewpoint. Rather, the artist plays the role of voice-over in these works, and becomes part of the narrative by immersing herself in the world of their painted images.
In creating the pieces, the titles come first, drawn from the artist’s journals, then the images, and lastly, the paint. All the work is painted from memory, with no photographs used. Memory is relied upon as a more reliable source of emotional truth. The image usually appears quite fast, except when the artist is discovering complex visual metaphors, which may emerge over time. She uses a many-layered approach in some of the paintings, like making chapters of a book.
The work includes both mixed-media pieces and straight oil painting on primed paper and linen. The painted collages are highly textured, sculptural at times, and incorporate a variety of handmade papers as well as corrugated cardboard. All the work is archival and framed in custom housings designed by the artist.
The stories of great difficulty and real hope told in these works made a lasting impression on the artist. As a humanist, she invites the viewer to recognize their kinship with the people whose lives are represented here. |
