Summer Small Works 2024

14 x 11" In my artwork, I capture the simple beauty in the natural environment, providing moments of serenity. I use water and light as beautiful threads that draw the eye in. The quality of light is of paramount importance, defining the textures and forms in nature, and patterns of light and shadow. This image was originally captured with infrared film; the negative was subsequently scanned and transformed into a digital negative. I then contact-printed the image using the platinum/palladium printing process to capture a softer, painterly effect, evoking late 19th-century idyllic landscapes, and lending a poetic quality to the image.  

In my paintings, I use concepts of abstraction, cubism, and surrealism to explore the elusive qualities of time, energy, and storytelling. My artistic goal is to create seductive surfaces and provocative forms that involve the viewer. I call these works "Mindscapes". My influences come from everywhere, other art forms, the directness of child’ art, past experiences, and current social situations. I want my painting to be fresh, and direct and engage the viewer in interpretation. This work is upbeat and joyful, full of contrasting shapes and bright colors with an exciting world beneath the horizon.  

I believe the connection between an artist and their viewer is possible through the recognition of familiar imagery. While presenting most challenges for the artist, traditional realism is the easiest way to ensure that connection. Realism is not a thing from the past that only belongs in museums but rather a clear, eloquent language that can get a contemporary message across, be serious or whimsical, humorous, or even playful.  

I am interested in how nature can act as a metaphor, for instance, how to personify hope, aging, nobility, etc. This ceramic bust was fired in the Japanese Raku process. The word 'Raku' means enjoyment. The figure here is a portrait of my mother, the "Garden Lady." Her head is slightly uplifted, eyes and mouth smiling. Hummingbirds, a dragonfly, a daisy, and gardenia flowers, all symbols of joy adorn the figure. The crackle glaze is a natural result of the quick firing and cooling.  

Nabeshima Nagako (1855-1941) was an elegant lady of Japanese high society from the Meiji period to the early Showa era. In April 1881 Nagako married Nabeshima Naohiro, eleventh and final daimyo of the Saga Domain in Rome, Italy, where he was performing official duties. Nagako served as secretary and chair of the Volunteer Nurses Association of the Japanese Red Cross Society from 1887 to 1936 as well as president of the Oriental Women's Association. The Full Strawberry Moon in Capricorn was my inspiration for this mystical piece. The beauty of the blue cosmos in the night sky abounds over the golden butterflies and dragonflies in my garden this summer. Often, butterflies will appear in our dreams. Seeing butterflies is an invitation to see our transformative possibilities. The Ionic Roman Columns are ancient honeyed relics from past loves -- memories we hold dear.  

For me, creating a sculpture is sharing something deeply personal from one human being to another. In college, I was captivated when I watched a carver working on a piece of limestone. It inspired me and I soon took a chisel to a small piece of limestone. I immediately knew that carving was my artistic home. Being in tune with the stone – its color, its grain, its size – is necessary to create forms in harmony. Alabaster is an elegant material. The stone allows expression from the most delicate to the monumental, highly polished to natural texture, allowing light to penetrate and emanate from its surface. I enjoy shaping such hard materials into sensuous, flowing forms that suggest the human spirit. When I leave elements unfinished or the natural stone, the viewer is invited to complete the sculpture in their mind’s eye.