In the practice of my art I explore what it is to be a human in this world, both individually and collectively. I am interested in how the human psyche perceives and constructs reality, subjective experiences, illusion and disillusion. I render narrative figurative images, often in a fragmented way, to evoke emotional, psychological, or spiritual states and suggest human vulnerability when facing the discrepancy between desires and reality.
My recent work of mixed media drawings on fabric mounted on wood panels (The New American Toile series) and fabric remnants (The New American Toile Remnants series) mounted on paper use the French 18th century designs of Toile de Jouy as the starting point. I juxtapose the background printed fabric narrative of a pastoral past populated by idyllic figures with a foreground of contemporary situations. Homelessness, gun violence, and other current controversies are in direct contrast to the nostalgic, sanitized, leisurely decorum of these historical toile patterns. The figures inhabiting this fragmented world create visual commentaries on the contradictions, changes and complexities of contemporary life. With undertones of foreboding, wanting and dismay, these works delve into the world of reality and fantasy.
In the Vignette series I use printed vignettes from French 18th Toile de Jouy and early American patterns on paper and juxtapose drawn images from contemporary life and daily news stories.
Like a sound bite, tweet or brief wire news update, these vignettes show a brief incident, scene or narrative that shades off gradually into the surrounding paper. It is in our consciousness for a second until the next news flash or viral YouTube video comes into our conscious space for a nano second.
As in my New American Toile series and the New American Toile Remnants series, these works reconsider the relationship between what remains, what is scrapped and what is made new in society’s collective consciousness, if only for a brief moment.
