April 2020
I was born into this world homesick. The search for home has been a constant theme underlying my work. I have carried a weight of loneliness and disconnect that has been both a curse and a gift. The artwork I present here has been and continues to be a means to transform this weight through images and constructs, process and materials that take me to places of spaciousness and grounded presence. Using a myriad of mediums, and forms, I am always asking, what is this thing called home, what does it offer, provide, does it create separation or connection?
I have approached this theme of “home” from many angles.The simple graphic shape of a house, firmly planted points upwards to the sky almost as if in prayer. I work with this iconic image both in paintings; incorporating swamp muck, local clay, acrylics, and handmade inks, as well as in sculptures; churned from molds using cement and clays, incorporating bones, mud, sticks, nests, found objects. Most recently I have used photographic self-portraits as a means of exploring my body as “home". I have a setup in my studio where, on impulse, I can sit, set the camera’s self-timer, and snap a photo of myself. The impulse usually involves holding something that is intriguing to me at that moment, creating almost a double portrait, myself and that which I am drawn to and want to hold close.
In much of my work I incorporate a lifelong habit of collecting and gathering. I still hold as precious, the spider that crawled into my grade school book and sadly got flattened between the pages. It is a relic of long-ago and reminds me of how vulnerable we all are. I continue to hold and cherish items I find around me. I navigate through my days often noticing something, picking it up, studying it, and perhaps it will land in my pocket, my studio, in a painting, a vessel, placed on an altar, or photographed along side me in a portrait. These finds keep me company, become part of my home and studio, they invite me into new spaces.
I live and work in rural Michigan. Everyday I walk in the woods and experience this environment melt into me. I watch everything continually changing, every season, every moment, and come to feel and experience myself as an integral part of it all. As I enter my 70’s, I am drawn to the decay, disintegration, and the tentativeness of life. I have learned no place is home until we feel at home in ourselves, our bodies, our work, our world.
BIO
I received a BFA in Sculpture from SFAI in 1973. In the 80’s I immersed myself in the L.A. Woman’s Building, participating in performance, installation, and public art. At the age of 45 I moved to Michigan with a young family where, 25 years later, I paint, create altars, and installations in my studio which includes the 12 acres of woods that surround my home.
