Artist Statement

Recently, my son sent an amusing email about the complexities of the human female gender. Actually, it was a joke geared toward men explaining or understanding women. That in itself is funny: complexities are what make us unique, but also what make us un-understandable or ambiguous. We cannot deny the differences that separate our genders, nor can we deny our cultural differences that separate humanity.

What I try to employ in my work is that fate determines the differences and variations within humanity. My work signifies my femininity as well as my feminine cultural past. Nature, quilts, nurturing, being a mother, wife, daughter, sister, aunt, artist, educator, friend, and quasi-southern woman are all part of the fate mixture that defines me as a human. Caring is the important central part of this synthesis. All these aspects have contributed to and developed my art into what you, the viewer observes on the canvas; care infused with fate.
Current events like Tibet, Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, and Global Warming seem surreal. Within all the atrocities, my question is why can’t we as humans allow the good to overcome the choice of blackness. It is my belief that there is good in this world. My art reflects that metaphor. Our differences, our fate, our complexities ignite the hatred and destruction of that black or lack of caring, but choice is what changes history. I trust that there is more good in our world. I think if you expect more, you get more. And we all should expect more of ourselves... and of others. Think of the changes in our own lives we can make doing this simple task.
When I approach a canvas, the visual elements and principles of color, line, texture, movement, and pattern are used to discover those complexities, fates, and tensions. The juxtaposition of the elements and their manipulation is important to the strength and variations that I apply to the canvas. Primarily, I use graphite, charcoal, and acrylic to manipulate my works. The variants and contrasts you see on the canvas are my attempt to find balance within the realm of fate: much like life itself. These attributes help to incorporate the issues that I define as most relevant. The most poignant question I can ask myself is . . . where will we (humanity) be concerning human kind, our choices, and the environment in one hundred years? These thoughts of fate are unfathomable at times. Our differences can destroy us or connect us. It is our choice to do either. My art reflects that within these possibilities, the differences in humankind are defined by fate. Why not hope for harmony and celebration of those fates?