Artist Statement

When I create artwork, I often do not start out with an image in mind, nor do I look at a photograph. I start with colors that I like that I feel if I scratch back into the painting later, that those colors will come alive. I often start paintings in shades of reds and yellows, but in my every day life those are not the colors that draw me in. I like to paint and put layers on the board or paper, translucent and opaque colors on top of each other and then draw down through the layers and find hints of interest. After adding many layers over time using many different tools to add shapes and designs, I put it aside and look at it for about a week and then go back and see what draws my eye and go from there. I often find that they become places I have been in the woods, or a marsh that I have kayaked. I am an intuitive artist not a traditional artist. My background in art was from studying art history and living in England for a year developing my cataloging ability for work in museums. I have over thirty years’ experience cataloging other artists work and understanding how and why someone created a piece of artwork. So I tend not to think when I create, but just do. I love using more than one type of media together. I love to take photographs and print them on silk, and then put parts of them into my encaustic paintings. I like to add pan pastels over the encaustic and add glimmers to the work. I also like using scraping tools such as pie cutters into oil paintings, and sewing tools that make different types of lines. I like using alcohol ink and charcoal on the same painting and then adding encaustic. So, my artwork is about the layers and the investigation and not the final product. If people like what I have produced that’s great.