I’m curious about the idea of impermanence. There’s a fleshy earthiness and grounding—or appearance of grounding—but it’s really just temporary. We are all part of the earth, so when you think about it, we are pieces of the earth walking on itself. In my art, I create organic motifs that become part of the landscape. For example, in some pieces, it’s difficult to tell where the figures begin and end. They’re grounded in space without the traditional foreground and background. My visualization of this contradiction of being “grounded” in space is my interpretation of impermanence.
The figures are presented as both constructed and deconstructed and are often overlaid to create this single motif. The combined images explore the themes of interconnection, groundedness, and impermanence. I accomplish this through my collection of contour line figure drawings observed and drawn from life and mixed media collage drawings made from the figure drawings. The figure drawings are immediate, left incomplete and done in one sitting, while the collages are developed and completed over longer periods of time.
My process is intuitive. I begin by combining two or more individual figure drawings that visually relate to one another. I look for the artwork itself to tell me what to do next, as the process continues by building multiple layers and sanding them down, causing the paper surface to become both severed and fused. The figures become imbedded into the continuously distressed surface, creating a sculptural quality that reveals its own history. After the figures go through a lengthy lost and found process, they are reestablished with a series of final layers, using contour lines and mark making that vary in quality and character. Multiple color washes are also added throughout this process with water media to give an implied sense of light and to reveal the many existing surface crevices, tears and edges. I intend for the works to appear simultaneously refined and unrefined, and to honor the handmade process that is at the heart of my personal visual language.