This drive to create began at my birth – I was born dead, then resuscitated; that signature experience remains as a defining moment, a physical and emotional memory in the body.
Making art becomes a grounding action, allowing connection to the intelligent flow of life, while supporting me to soften, receive and honor the sacred feminine and masculine.
This conversation between masculine and feminine energies is reflected in the work.
Each 22” x 31” piece begins on ®Arches archival cotton fiber cold press paper. I use pencil to draw loose shapes that shift and merge into other forms. My process follows a pure, organic impulse.
As the work develops, the shapes materialize by layering Winsor Newton gouache (an opaque watercolor paint made of pigments invented by scientist William Windsor and artist Henry Newton in 1835). I use filtered water to navigate direction and movement.
To create depth and dimension I add thin, light layers of color using Caran D'Ache (a high concentration of pigments contained by cedar wood, made in Geneva, Switzerland since 1915).
This step is followed by shaping with line in darker and lighter colors to provide impressions of light, opacity, translucency and weight.
Organic forms appear, using modeled detailing to reveal movement.
Individual cells form naturally when gouache is applied to the vellum; after they dry, layers are added that follow the flow of the emerging shapes.
Key to this process is nonattachment to outcome, which allows for surprise as the piece comes into itself. The resulting work is intended as a transmission to the viewer, allowing them to have their own experience.
My artwork has always been an expression of love. During the process of making art, I am learning to receive its gift and to share it.
