My artworks are a meditation on Nature. I am interested in evoking the keenly joyous moments, celebratory gestures and expressive colors I find in the natural world. In my own tropical garden I grow all of the plant materials used in my creative process. I like knowing that I am both conceptually and actually partnering with Nature when making my art.
I begin each new artwork with a plain piece of silk or cotton. I prepare the cloth for printing by splashing, staining, and painting with water based pigments. Without too much advance planning I then cover the fabric with shapes and lines using raw materials from my garden in a stencil printing process. Overprinting using Screen Print Inks in consecutive layers results in a dense and complex surface. By design I am never in complete control of this process so that an unpredictable and surprising effect occurs each time. Shapes and lines result from the falling splash of color and tossing of leaf or string. These "marks of the moment" capture a beautiful physical logic. I try to preserve this residue of the process as much as possible in my finished artwork. I feel an important philosophy of harmony is communicated through a co-mingling of these gestures of the human body and the natural forms of the garden.
I use cotton threads stitched into silk to connect the intimacy of domesticity and personal touch to a wider cultural context. With this thread I am adding marks of time and touch as well as clarifying the serendipitous rhythms developed during the printing process. My goal is to combine nature's graceful gestures, colors and shapes to create art that nourishes mind, eye and spirit.