My
work is about the
desire to live fully
in the face of adversity,
whether it is war,
untimely illness
or death. At times
this struggle can
be so staggering
as to utterly immobilize
one. What I hope
to express in my
work is an observation
of sorrow so deep
that it becomes transformative.
The work becomes
a repository of my
experiences.
I
begin my work by
trolling for images.
Using a digital
camera, I take
pictures of street
memorials and graffiti:
skulls and R.I.P.
graffiti, flowers,
candles – we’ve
all seen these
tributes. I also
work with the x-ray
skeletal images
of my daughter.
Taking the images
and cropping them,
I use Photoshop
to create patterns
that I print on
printmaking or
Nepalese Lokta
papers with an
inkjet printer.
In sections, the
printed patterns
are mounted on
panel creating
a larger secondary
pattern.
Finally, I work the surfaces
with encaustic – pigmented beeswax and resin.
Applying color to these pieces allows me to play;
I love color and I understand it intuitively. I obsessively
make dots using a heated encaustic pen. The encaustic
medium’s unpredictability – the way it
runs, melts, and drips in ways that are hard to control – produces
a tension between my attempts at order through the
use of pattern and inevitable disorder.
Statement for Shadowboxes
In the Fall of 2007 I decided to revisit a series of shadowboxes I began in 2000. Most of these pieces were devoted to faces and hands, yet not exclusively. Except for the piece titled Rabbit Hole, I have continued with this theme. This is what I wrote about shadowboxes in 2003:
As a child I loved the world of my dollhouse.
Loving the beds and the chairs, the dishes and tables,
I made it mine – all mine.
My aunt and uncle were picture framers.
In her retirement, my aunt discovered the interior world of shadowboxes.
With miniature furniture, she made elegant and delightful rooms.
They took me back.
A box, like the dollhouse, becomes a place to dwell.
It can be a place to pay homage or a place to remember.
With a feeling of intimacy and fragility, one is asked to enter.
Working with my children, their friends and classmates,
I introduced them to drawing on Shrinky Dink (shrinkable plastic).
In turn, I became enchanted with its possibilities.
Constructed of foam core, covered in paper and painted with encaustic,
the boxes are designed to house the Shrinky Dinks.
Placed center-stage the shrunken drawings are attached by thread to the box.
