4.17.02
Are your paintings your diary?
No, I very rarely start a painting with the details of my life. I tend to start with visual imagery that inspires me. Through the decision making process it eventually becomes apparent that they are very much about my life, usually in ways I had not/could not have planned - as I believe all art reflects it's maker's life.
Why paint on satin and why the hand stitched seam?
I paint on satin because I love its girly, gaudy, glamorous and magical qualities. It also has a certain decadence, like in satin sheets, underwear, or throw pillows. I like the idea of the material bringing its own inherent meaning to the pieces. It becomes a piece of language.
The hand stitching is a form of mark-making which can be read in numerous ways. For me it often adds an interesting psychological dimension that can touch upon the ideas of duality, disruption, or a rift between realities. I also enjoy the act of hand sewing, the roughness of it, and the reference to women's work.
What is your interest to use drawing within painting especially with regard to creating transparency and shapes versus the solidity of the painted image/form?
The drawn elements are a way for me to directly reference the world through pop culture or more personal, self-generated visuals. I grab images from wherever I find them, like sampling in music - although I often take large liberties in their re-production.
When I leave a shape transparent rather than painting it in, it gets to have a more open-ended and ambiguous relationship to the whole. For me it's sort of existing outside of conscious, linear time and space. It can be read literally as part of the landscape, the foreground, background, or felt as an unseen entity. The combination of the drawn forms and the painted areas help to make the works as alive as possible, to have fluidity and movement within the necessarily static and still medium of painting.
What is your point of view on feminism?
I definitely consider myself a feminist, in that I believe both sexes should have the opportunity to pursue whatever it is they want to pursue and be treated with equal respect. I think my work could be seen as feminist in the sense that I just feel really free in my approach to expressing myself and putting forth a vision of being alive in a very strong, sensual, and unapolagetically feminine way. I don’t think about these things when I'm painting, I just try to be as true to my heart as I can. A friend of mine always says my work is like "machisma", female macho!
When so many have their attention on technology and science, how did you get to nature, humanism, romanticism and the mythic?
I could answer this question in at least ten different ways. The way that seems most compelling right this minute is to say that although I may not appear to be directly addressing the current mindblowing issues of science and technology, these branches of study seem to stem from the same ideas my work is dealing with: a desire for connection to other people, nature, and animals. Plus the yearning to explore uncharted territory, especially that which can not be seen, and to deeply understand ourselves and the world around us. I'm just taking my own path to get there. I think scientists and artists are often conducting somewhat similar and parallel explorations, reaching compatible conclusions through very different routes.