Artist Statement

Starting with a beginner’s mind. Following the energy and rhythm of a piece until it comes to its resting place. Keeping an open heart and exploring layers of meaning as I go. That’s how I think of my practice as an abstract painter and mixed media artist.

It’s a process of wrestling and experimentation, mystery and surprise, free play and thoughtful discernment. It’s also a way to acknowledge that, as Joanna Macy writes, “To be alive in this beautiful, self-organizing universe—to participate in the dance of life with sense to perceive it, lungs that breathe it, organs that draw nourishment from it—is a wonder beyond words.”

Created primarily in acrylic, watercolor, pastel and collage, my art is rooted in communion with the natural world and a continual conversation between inner and outer landscapes. The work is inspired by many spheres of life, including earth, water and sky, music of many kinds, spirituality and ancestry, emotion and healing, multicultural learning and community. While many people find abstract art a bit hard relate to, I want viewers to feel welcomed into the images I make, and be moved to respond to vibrant hues, energetic mark-making, scraping and staining, and juxtapositions with text, fabric, sequins, beads, collage scraps and natural materials. I believe that looking at art is itself a creative process, and the special grace of abstract art is the way it invites viewers to enter not only the artist’s intention but the journey a piece evokes within themselves.

These days, much of my creative work explores what it means to embrace both love and grief when the environment in which we live is rapidly transforming. I aim to engage with the beauty and the turbulence of this world and my experience in it, making and sharing art as an expression of wonder, aliveness and hope.