These mixed media works on paper combine fine art and craft materials with traditionally women's methods of making to create images invoking the body and mind.
I am interested in memory: the neuro-bio-chemical creation and hardwiring of memory, and the physical processes that occur allowing the degradation of memory and memory loss.
Within my works, biological components are suggested, emerging from the drawing space: neurons, white matter, blood cells, the double helix. A chaotic crazy quilt of colors, patterns and shapes gleefully resist categorization and control. Layers are created, stitched together, wiped away or obliterated, redrawn and cut away, recombined. Corollaries for the experience of the maturing brain, finished pieces become very physical records of their lived histories – works that are layered, process-rich explorations on the brain and the construction/ deconstruction of memory.
ink, gouache, gesso, cut paper, maps, stitching, rhinestones, glitter; 32" x 24"
ink, gouache, gesso, cut paper, maps, stitching, rhinestones, glitter; 24” x 27”
ink, gouache, maps, cut paper; 29” x 24”
ink, gouache, gesso, cut paper, maps, stitching; 27” x 27"
ink, gouache, cut paper, maps, stitching, sequins, beads, glitter, grommets; 24” x 23.5”
ink, gouache, gesso, cut paper, maps, stitching, sequins, beads, grommets; 26” x 25”
32"x32"; ink, gouache, gesso, cut paper, maps, stitching, rhinestones, glitter
ink, gouache, pencil, stitching, cut paper, glitter, rhinestones; 18” x 17”
ink, gouache, gesso, cut paper, stitching, rhinestones; 14” x 17”
ink, gouache, cut paper, stitching; 17” x 14”
ink, gouache, cut paper, maps, stitching, sequins, beads, glitter, rhinestones; 18.5” x 15.5”
ink, graphite, cut paper, stitching; 10” x 14”
ink, mylar, cut paper, stitching, grommets, sequins; 12" x 9"
ink, mylar, cut paper, stitching, grommets; 12" x 9"
Specimen Series parallels my extended interest in and work about the brain and the way in which each of us mentally catalogs and attempts to understand our worlds from the various pieces that make it up. Works are inspired by individual object examination and discovery, and equally importantly, by the ways in which we organize and understand this information. Akin to the way museums attempt to enlighten an audience, pieces both present the viewer with samples for examination and also, through interpretation, attempt to weave discrete parts into an overall understandable pattern.
These drawings lie between a finely curated and interpreted exhibit, and a museum’s collection storage, as we imagine wandering through and opening drawers at random to see what lies therein. Works are informed by extended time spent in Britain and Ireland.
colored pencil, ink, stitching, cut paper; 16" x 14"
colored pencil, ink, stitching, cut paper, beads; 16" x 14"
colored pencil, ink, stitching, cut paper, beads; 13” x 14”
colored pencil, ink, stitching, cut paper; 14" x 10"
colored pencil, ink, watercolor, stitching, cut paper, beads; 9" x 9"
colored pencil, ink, stitching, cut paper; 14" x 11"
colored pencil, graphite, stitching, cut paper; 14" x 11"
colored pencil, ink, stitching, cut paper; 14" x 11"
Pinning down translucent shadows, as if making a fleeting memory physical, these cyanotype print experiments seek to capture the interstitial space between the tangible and the intangible.
10" x 8"
9" x 12"
20" x 26"
26" x 20"