New Work - Paintings and Mixed-Media Collage
Geode, 2024, 30x30x2 acrylic, dried flowers, quarts crystals, seeds, butterfly wings, credit cards, various drawing materials
The Open Channel
This painting shows the apparatus and construction of your human tear duct. The physical location and process of expelling tears, a biological response to emotional stimuli, includes sadness, grief, joy, and wonder.
Acrylic on canvas. 24x36
Esophageal Vase
This painting expresses my feeling of being physically and spiritually connected with the living world. The Birds of Paradise in the esophagus symbolize healing from an eating disorder and the gift of enjoying delicious foods and nourishing my body.
I started working on this painting in mid 2022 during a residency. While there, I visited Blanton Art Museum in Austin and Museum of Fine Art Houston and was profoundly affected by the ways that literary descriptions and text can enhance a viewing experience. I am interested in how words pair with imagery, and the following quote from Collier Schorr speaks to how art can lead to deep questioning.
"Gender, religion, nationality, they’re all things that are in flux in my work. They all build on each other, this idea of you’re not sure what you’re looking at—echoing you’re not sure what you are, you’re not sure what someone else is.”
-Collier Schorr
Acrylic on canvas, 24x36
Where the Hearth Is
This chimney in the woods can be found at the Eno River State Park off the trail in northern Durham. I stopped and visited with myself there, noticing how the entire scene seemed created just to frame these remains of an old home and just for my visits. The heart and the hearth rest in a quiet space where the former structure is now enveloped with trees, overgrown and reclaimed by the natural surroundings. The indigenous cultures which lived in this area were the Eno and Occoneechee Native American tribes, long before this structure was built.
Acrylic on canvas, 40x40
The Creation of Elmo
This painting was inspired by the Michaelangelo masterpiece, “The Creation of Adam” from the Sistene Chapel ceiling circs 1508-1512. The original work illustrates the Biblical creation narrative from the Book of Genesis in which God gives life to Adam, the first man.
Acrylic on canvas, 40”x40”
YouTube video of creation stages
Tanuki Angel
This portrait of our dog was the 4th layer of work to be added to this painting. A layering of paintings over one another is a narrative, a kind of storytelling in which the earlier chapters are hidden and perhaps disappeared forever, leaving only the memories and present moment.
Acrylic on canvas, 16”x20”