ARTIST STATEMENT

Am I the only one who feels unsure of myself? I doubt it. We go through this life together with unspoken worries, anxieties, and regrets. This characteristic of the human condition is bewildering and leads me to explore vulnerabilities in people, their faults and foibles. In a recent series I call the Corona series I explore our vulnerability in-light-of uncontrollable and unpredictable external events like viruses, fires, and hurricanes.

In sociology class, I learned the term anthropomorphism, the assigning of human characteristics to animal or inanimate object, something a good sociologist is not to do. I loved the concept and not surprisingly I find I impose human vulnerabilities on glaciers, trees, and other things touched by time and man.

When I look at the breadth of my art, contrasts play heavily into the concept. Of course, strength and fragility rises as a main underlying force, but on an operative level I like the contrast of colors and textures, light and dark.

Early on, I found silk dyeing and loved the wicking of dye on silk.  Silk has wonderfully vivid and transparent qualities when dyed. I use a variety of methods of applying the dye from painterly to Shibori to printing.

I created a technique to adhere dyed silk to acrylic glass. The silk seems to become one with the glass allowing me to create three-dimensional art pieces that stand upright, so that light can shine through and exploit the dyed silk’s vibrant quality. These pieces show equally well from the backside. I usually cut the acrylic glass into supportive shapes.