My work focuses on series, many studies of the same subject. Using watercolor, I view and paint many paintings of the same thing in order to distill my visual perception and reduce the subject to light and brush stroke. I want to capture something that I learn to see and paint through repetition over a period of time. The images evoke relationship of variation and simulation, changing only slightly from piece to piece.
As I worked on this series, I looked for ways of expressing the nature of shell ‘ness’ that represented the physical and psychological nature of my inquiry. Representational studies became contour drawing, modeled forms in paint became brush stroke, pages became shell like layers. I continued to rethink the physical nature of externalizing my idea of shell in alternate physical realities. Trans-formation. Shell to paper, paper to book, book to sculpture, sculpture to installation, installation to replication of collecting sea shells, etc.
Shell Game is a study of shells collected over the past 30 years. It is a time based installation piece, using several forms, including the original pile of shells, traditional drawing and watercolor studies and book forms. I used a journal style of binding to represent the act of recording daily painting, folded and bound to produce a particular visual sequence. The pages are painted on both sides. The viewer selects what to see and not see. This act brings the viewer closer to the act of collecting, simulating my physical and visual journey.
I am influenced by the writings of Baudrillard, Derrida and Heidegger. My work is included in many public and private collections in the US and abroad as well as museums in Washington DC, Boston and NY. I am currently seeking a Masters Degree in Interdisciplinary Art at Goddard College in Vermont.