Artist Statement
I have been a textile designer for 30 years. My initial training/ education (at UCLA) started with screen printing, weaving, color theory and painting flat in gouache. Soon after I started workings as a designer, I studied Printmaking at Fort Mason Art Center where I made monotypes and showed them for many years at Open Studios and group shows. I've had a long break from making art since I've been raising my son as a single parent. He's now in college so I'm now spending more time on my own work. I'd been exploring acrylic painting and encaustic on my own until 2019 when I took an intensive workshop with Nicholas Wilton. This instruction gave me the push to really move my work to the next level.
The previous owner of a flat I lived in for many years had known David Ireland and was very influenced by him when he painted the place. He sanded back parts of old plaster and paint to reveal Victorian wallpaper- but just the smallest glimpse of it, a tiny rosebud, juxtaposed against aging plaster that still had cracks and distressed surfaces. There was no whitewashing. The home's history was intact and adored. During my decade there, I adored it too. I believe this led to my interest in photographing crumbling walls, graffiti covered over by event posters, covered over again by more paint creating abstract compositions and beautiful textures. The painting process is much like this. As I write this, just like the old walls, the layers of influences are revealing themselves to me. The painting I've been doing recently reflects these ideas of revealing layers of color and texture without planning and concept, just a response to the materials and what is happening in the painting as it evolves. Of course, composition and color are important. I want the viewers eye to move around the image and be as delighted as I am in it’s creation.
photo credit: Robert Birnbach
Textile Design and Illustration.
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