I was a choreographer and modern dancer for most of my life. It is the balance between energy and stillness that I focus on in my art. I reflect this discord in a gesture and painterly fashion. I create motion to evoke emotion. The paintings show a contradiction between motion and stillness. Nothing stays still for very long, and why should it? Movement is inherent in growth. As a retired dancer, I transferred all of my creative energy into learning drawing and painting, which led me to develop a unique artistic style, drawing into paint.
My paintings are an honest representation of my reality through a feminine looking glass. My paintings are about me, yet distorted. I look inward to paint experiences of my life as a mother, wife, daughter, sister, teacher, and artist. I am surrounded by strong personalities and I dream vivid dreams - the mixture is a heavy cocktail between stillness and constant activity.
While painting, I begin as I would when I was a dancer choreographing a dance, one element moving into the next. A line begins, takes shape into mass, which will deepen with color, and then culminates into an expressionistic, impressionistic painting. Art Historical references that influence my style begins with a strong education in drawing beginning with Michelangelo to Rembrandt, moving more towards an impressionistic approach including, Matisse, Modigliani, Sir Frances Bacon, and DeKooning to name a few. I use a variety of media to create a raw, yet, luminous painting style, as I manipulate acrylic, oil, charcoal, pastels, and paper, with raw canvas. Fabrics may be integrated on to the surface, rendering a sense of place and serve as a reminder of my experiences as a decorative painter. My process of cutting out pre-painted canvases, piecing together with others, and painting into and over them, enables for me a new freedom in my creative process.