Cos Club Members Show: Selected Works
In the Gallery July 8 - July 31

My love of materials: handmade papers, fiber, beads—essentially, an eclectic mixture of medium – combined with the influence of my collection of quilts and folk art studies, led me slowly through a series of starts and stops…but always a creative journey to new and exciting places.

My work is influenced by art history, particularly the classical masters — their techniques, palettes, and the ways they interpreted the human experience through the centuries. I also explore contemporary subject matter.

I am fascinated by the order, symmetry and diversity of the natural world. My objective is to hone my observational skills and to better understand the unique structures found in nature. To this end, I find that flowers and plants provide an exuberant and endless variety of subject matter.

I am a colorist. Color is what intrigues and excites me. Years ago I switched from oil to watercolor. As John Marin said when asked how to get good at watercolor, “Do it every day for three years, and you MAY get the hang of it.” I hope I have.

I find that my engagement with the model gives me a spiritual lift in that I can look hard at another person and think about his or her life experience rather than my own. It is very difficult to capture what makes that person unique as no two people are ever exact duplicates.

My primary artistic focus is portraiture—both human and animal—and I also enjoy creating still lifes in pencil, oil, acrylic, gouache, and watercolor.

The artist was partial to still life and the human body. Watercolor was her medium. Her art reflects the skills of a master draftswoman.

I’m interested in exploring how paper can be changed/manipulated/used in different ways to create a new reality. The Japanese technique of momigami (kneaded paper) changes the texture of paper, stretches and contracts the papers’ original images.

In most of my work, I tend to focus on relationships and rhythms of color shapes that come from nature - plants, trees, landscape forms, that create movement tension and movement.

My work has been influenced by the illustrative style of 15th century manuscripts as well as the paintings of Frida Kahlo, Edward Hopper. The novels of Angela Carter and Alice Hoffman have also encouraged my use of existing folklore as a point of departure in developing new narratives.

My work has always expressed a sense of calm and quiet joy through the somewhat formal nature of the compositions using translucent images printed on rectangular acrylic plates. When outer forces dramatically altered every aspect of my life, I attempted to express the devastating and overwhelming power of these forces.