My visual schemata developed through the veil of my Catholic immigrant history. Progressively, I am drawn to the materials of the women of my early world, like fabric and fiber, and common household remnants including bottle caps, trinkets, and pieces of glass and pottery. These materials speak of my current community construct as I gather them from sites like MECCA (Materials Exchange Center for Community Art),
St. Vinnies, and Bring Recycling in my town of Eugene, Oregon. I weave materials together that imprint current aspects of my culture while setting this work within archetypal structures such as the labyrinth, circle, triptychs, and tapestries.
In 1990 I moved from New York City, where I spent ten years completing my art education, to a wilderness area in Northern California. I spent the next ten years living in wilderness areas in both Northern California and Oregon and my immersion in nature has become an impetus for my artwork. I spent those years studying nature in drawings that I later developed into the “Notes on Paradise” series of works on paper, that used imagery from studies of tree branches, as well as in videos featuring that landscape as a protagonist.
My artistic practice shifted direction around 2016 as our world shifted to a place of racial and societal division not seen since the 1960s. At that time my artwork became action, evolving into projects in my community in the form of interactive and collaborative public art events, such as the “Objects of Affection” work that I created around a circular fountain in our town square. My projects seek to center a group of people upon creative actions that result in one final artwork or oeuvre. The content of public murals that I paint and mentor in schools, such as an Anti-Hate mural painted with North Eugene high school students, created in response to racist graffiti scrawled on their school, echo a theme of unity and reconciliation and is one example of this type of work. My collaborative project designs attempt to create a shared aesthetic experience as a catalyst for conversations that pattern collective, creative action.
After completing a commission for a mural in the City of Eugene, Oregon, I began my most recent series of paintings in 2021 titled “The Rose of Sharon” series. This is an artistic project that weaves the undercurrent of nature, that has founded my work since moving to the Pacific Northwest, with my socially engaged practice, directly involving others as part of the work. “The Rose of Sharon” series is dedicated to each woman in my life that has helped me to bloom, even in the desert. I am interpreting over twenty women who have formed this foundation for my life as a flower. Each woman will receive her painting as part of this project and process. Some participants wish to choose their own interpretation, while others do not, in which case I am choosing a flower that speaks to me of them. The “Rose of Sharon” series is an improvisation that will send phrases of my visual poetry to an extraordinary network of women all throughout the US.
Artistic collaborations help manifest and deepen my personal practice as I develop my creative work alongside community projects and commissions. “The Place Where They Gathered and Were Shaken”, is the first in the Seasonal Cycle of works begun in the early spring of 2016 in a shared studio where I was, and remain, part of an artist collective called the Logos Project. I chose the structure of prayer flags and hand-dyed each to create a contemplative space. Every person that moves through this piece affects is uniquely affected by the changes in the natural and illusionistic light and physical interaction with the material as they progress through the labyrinth towards a darkened interior chamber. In this way, each participant deepens the meaning of the work. Collaborations with the “Gathering” piece by four other Logos project artists can be found on the Collaborations page of this site.
My recent publications and teaching are listed on the bottom of the Bio page.
“The sun broke through and flecks of gold filled the air…Spirits show themselves in just this way…” -unknown author
