Reflections

I hope to convey the pure joy eyesight brings to my life.
I am constantly amazed at color’s ability to dazzle. I love
the play of light, the act of brushing on color, and the
discrimination between warm and cool colors. I treasure
the surprising moment when a painting resonates visually
and metaphorically. A barn becomes a church, a landscape
a living body, two chairs a relationship.

I am often drawn to our vanishing farmscape and the
crumbling barns and buildings that challenge our current
values. I especially love the haunting imbalance of windows
and doorways in farm architecture. These aging matriarchs
and patriarchs sheltered and nourished us, and their dignity
in the face of their diminished value is something I want to honor.

In the process of painting, there is a meditative element to the
choice “is it this color, or this?” which has always enthralled me.
Oil’s tactile qualities — its layers, scumbles and glazes — help
me place these two-dimensional pieces in a three-dimensional
mindframe.

I am influenced in my painting choices by a background in
English literature and graphic design. Words like “grace,”
“refuge,” and “abandonment” are veins of gold to be mined.
Playing with light and dark, color complements and negative
spaces, I aim to create a visual poem.