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My work in the past has been about the female body. While this remains as a base, I am adding to it several other layers. The work is becoming more abstract, and the specificity of the image is loosening. A piece may suggest a handful of familiarities at once, and the intersection or layering of these becomes important.
The images have a very personal aspect to them. At the same time, they connect with archetypal forms and have a psychological intrigue, which for me is a less controllable element. I want them to appear as ancient symbols rendered with a contemporary sensibility. The paint is put down in wide lines, drips, and dabs. It simultaneously exists in the realms of calligraphic signage, illusion, and straightforward physicality of the material. I am interested in the tension this presents. While the marks are very deliberate and rehearsed in order to express what I intend at the moment, there is also an element of spontaneity and chance in the process of making them. They feel like roads that map a certain path or diagrams that describe a beautiful form. My influences are quite varied – from Navajo weavings to Asian painting to twentieth century American abstraction to early feminist art. Perhaps the common thread in this list is that the work has a certain spiritual presence or basis. I hope that my work possesses this quality as well. December 2000 |
