Collage and Abstract Expressionist painting are inventions of the
20th century that have formed my aesthetic and my structural
process. Controlling accident, combining historical idioms into
heterogeneous images, and expression are my driving visual
concerns. For me painting is the conflict between analysis and
emotion, control and surrender.
My paintings are primarily abstract and lyric, improvisational, never
worked from preconceived designs or drawings. Although the
paintings allude to printing or transfer techniques, they do not use
them. The surfaces are hand-made and each painting is unique
and each image within the painting is as well. The careful
articulation of these images, help me create emotional distance and
temper the romantic content of the work.
The images I use in my work are iconic as well as symbolic. An
apple as an old testament sign for temptation and often used in still
life painting for its’ pure and timeless beauty or an egg with its’
perfect form and association with birth and vulnerability are familiar
motifs. Tulips and their bulb roots have gesture shapes that
suggest male and female figures. These flowers are made to be
simultaneously free and psychologically restrained. In each
painting, the meaning of apples, eggs, and tulips is suggested by
context.
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