Artist Statement   
 
2020

 
For the past thirty years, my primary creative focus has been on non-objective abstraction in the mediums of painting and sculpture.
My paintings are created with acrylics in an abstract and expressionist style.  I work on various types of surfaces such as canvas, wood panels and assemblages, works on paper and paintings on commercially printed fabrics.
 
My current series of paintings are of organic forms on printed fabrics that hang loosely off the wall. This allows me the opportunity to work on a large and ambitious scale. I juxtapose the familiar everyday quality of the fabric’s patterns with my spontaneously painted structures.  The painted forms can be interpreted by the viewer as either a micro or macroscopic perspective.   The network of dots, connecting forms, and structures express my experiences of living in a complex, multi-layered and chaotic world.   The forms can be read as cells, viruses, planets or galaxies.  The forms are open symbols that mirror information networks, flow charts, diagrams of the cosmos, or other concepts or things.
 
In 2014, I became interested in expanding the expressive possibilities of abstract painting beyond the traditional flat two-dimensional surface. I wanted to bring imagery and content into my art, by combining representation, text, and symbols with my usual abstract forms.  In my current series of artworks, I combine everyday three-dimensional objects and  photographs with my abstract paintings; the new pieces are called painted constructions or assemblages.  The artworks combine materials as wood, plastic, acrylic paint, fabric, ceramics, digital photographs, and found objects.  The assemblages on wood panels are often symbolic in nature and therefore can be interpreted in diverse ways and on different levels.  I leave enough room for the viewer to interpret my artwork from their own unique vantage point, experiences, and backgrounds.

Through the dynamic arrangement of various objects, materials, and processes, I can more fully express the depth of my concerns as well as social issues such as class and power relations, climate change, consciousness and values.  Even though there is often a humorous element to the assemblages, I try to  address some of the complex and serious issues of contemporary life.  I believe that the arts have an important role to play in the formation of our culture and that  my artworks can be a dynamic voice on  these critical dialogues.