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Simply stated, my work addresses the interconnectedness of memory, history and dream. I am interested in the phenomenon of human memory, and its ability to continually redefine. An on-going process of accumulating layers of experience, past events merge together with present to create newly altered recollections. Together, these amalgamations of memory form a complex personal history, in much the same way that multiple layers of societal memory are combined to form our documented cultural and political history. In selecting subject matter for my work, I often begin with a specific childhood memory that has gained importance in my mind, as it has been affected by the passage of time. Chosen not only for their personal relevance, but also for their ability to
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Faust, oil on panel, 11x14 inches, 2004
to communicate universal experience, these images become representative of both personal and societal memory.In a series of paintings entitled The Disagreement, complex issues of: sibling rivalry, the struggle of self-against-self, and the politics of corporate in-fighting are layered together as each successive life experience recalls memories of the last. In another series of paintings called The Nightmare, memory and history become affected by both waking and sleeping forms of dream, as a young girl is haunted by a nightmare. The narrative of the series questions which experience is true and which is imagined, as the girl rises to wrestle her demons and enters into a physical confrontation with a life-given construct of her imagination. The figures in my paintings are often young girls from the ages of seven to eleven. The seven year old represents the confident and self-empowered child, the eleven year old the uncomfortable and brooding adolescent. The years in between are filled with dichotomies as the once-whole child becomes psychologically fractured through the slow, evolutionary process of becoming an adult. Recent works feature fully grown women and men in series of works that focus on relationships, achievement, and self-image.
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I have specifically chosen to work on a small scale because I find the size at once challenging and appropriate for the narrative style I have developed and the issues I have chosen to address. Akin to secrets confided in a hushed voice, these intimate paintings feel precious and personal. In order to see the work, the viewer must take a step closer and change focus -- preparing themselves to enter an “other” world. I have great admiration for 14th and 15th Century Italian and German-Netherlandish panel painting. The works I am drawn to are characteristically figurative and narrative, and, like my own work, commonly painted on a small scale. I have found inspiration in the delicacy of detail, texture, and intricate patterning found in works of this kind by painters such as Fra Fillipo Lippi, Fra Angelico, Jan Van Eyck, and the Master of Flemalle.
Mr. Marvel-Us II, oil on panel, 12x9 inches, 2004
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