Artist

I use painting, drawing and printing to explore the complex issues surrounding modern religious faith and its interaction with feminist theory.  I enjoy working on two dimensional surfaces, rendering realistic three dimensional forms.  I love the challenge of creating these deep spaces and simultaneously admitting the flatness of the picture plan.  Somebody Give Me a Big ‘YES’, a painting of a young woman who is busy sewing the skin of her breast to her chest, combines these flat and rounded spaces in an intricacy of line and color that can map an emotional geography though struggles with the body, with strength and with faith.  I work within the lineage of religious paintings from art history particularly those works created before 1800.

All of the works in this series are based on the stories of early christian martyrs, saints, and beatified individuals as though they were living in present times.  The ecstasy of these saints has been replaced with a self determination and inner strength.  I use bold colors that are almost plastic as well as metallics combined with traditional oil painting that push against one another to create a simultaneous sense of vulnerability and repose.

Figures are a core value in my work.  These include images of friends, family, and self-portraiture.  I render these in realistic rounded oil paint on vividly colored acrylic backgrounds that draw from street art, sign painting, and gestural painting styles.  Engrossed in themselves, my figures live in a world where the laws of science and physics no longer exist.