artist statement
Over the last several years, my work has dealt with nature and fertility. While nature is still an integral part of my work, my primary concern is with current environmental issues and their effect on our landscape and environment. Some of these issues include mountaintop removal (for coal), hydraulic fracturing (for natural gas), oil drilling, and the Keystone XL oil pipeline project. My new paintings have gone back to a straight-edge format, where I’m drawing and painting the over-the-top elements of the laser-cut edges into the rectangle.
I’m fascinated by beauty in art and nature and exploit it in my work. While at the same time, I recognize that the underbelly of beauty and nature is often frightening and grotesque, and I like this as well — I find this contradiction deeply complex and intriguing, especially in its relationship to human behavior. I strive to incorporate this paradox into my work with the myriad elements that I apply to the painting’s surface, such as glass and plastic beads, glitter, Austrian crystals, and thick layers of glue, as well as the painted subject matter.
Some of my stylistic references are to art history, including the Renaissance, Baroque, Victorian decorative art, Romanticism, and antique botanical imagery; these influential art movements, combined with my own concepts, elicit painting compositions that are seductive visual feasts of fruit, flora, wildlife, and beauty laced with brooding undertones.
The cut-edge paintings are made on ¼-inch PVC or Plexiglass. I design the patterns on the computer and then have the panels professionally laser-cut. Once back in my studio, I begin the painting process. The cut edges extend the subject matter and pattern of the painting, with insects flittering along the wall and casting shadows for a three-dimensional effect.
selected awards / grants
• Initial nominee for the James and Audrey Foster Prize at the ICA, Boston, 2010
• Vermont Studio Center, full-fellowship, 2009
• Artist’s Resource Trust / Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation Grant, 2008
• Blanche E. Colman Award, 2008
• Local Cultural Council Grant, 2008
• Constantin Alajalov Scholarship Award, 2006
To see a full list of exhibits, education, etc., please download my résumé.