Artist Statement

I am an American acrylic and mixed media artist who creates highly textured substrates using layered or cradled panels, molding paste, composite metal leaf, collage, paint, and other objects and mediums. I combine my love of rich and iridescent colors with designs I create from influences such as illuminated manuscripts, Byzantine and Islamic mosaic/tilework, indigenous tribes from around the world, and from Catholic ceremony, which was ever-present in my childhood home.

My work has been heavily influenced and impacted by my strict religious upbringing as well as my love of the landscape and nature. I was always attracted to illuminated manuscripts, religious iconography, and spiritual symbolism. From these influences, I have created in my work a focus on metaphor, spiritualism, and a connection to my higher self, as well as a deep attraction to the natural world.

I also incorporate motifs from the natural world in my paintings, such as stylized leaves and branches. I also bring a mystical influence into my work by frequently incorporating orbs and light-reflecting marks and symbols.

My most recent work is a tribute to my mother and my aunts, their love and expertise of sewing and fabrics, and their remarkable resourcefulness from prior the Great Depression to the years following World War II. Many of the designs printed on those fabrics have become patterns in my paintings. To create my current textural and complex work, I often combine those now-vintage fabric motifs with the iridescent colors reminiscent of the religious pageantry of my youth, as well as those derived from ancient cultures.

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