Artist Statement

My art process is a joyous, frenzied dance while deconstructing the idea of “craft.” In my current work as a multimedia artist, there is a tension between engaging directly with nature and the imagined world created in the studio. This emerges in the agitated lines of the drawings and the expressive color and brushwork of my paintings, which then further inspire other forms of production. Simultaneously, these designs connect to the innocence of childhood and the fantasy of imagined places: enchanted gardens, Neverland, closets that lead to other worlds, and imaginative sets in old Disney movies and Broadway musicals. Although painting underlies my practice, it translates into other media such as monoprints and fiber constructions. All are connected in a chain of making, from two-dimensional images to books, to fabric sculptures, and installations. A background that includes set design, craft materials, sewing, dance, pattern and decoration painting, and installation results in amalgamations with images and forms that address the natural world and the domestic interior. My entire body of work represents this history of making; it also harkens back to my early feminist engagement with decorative patterns and fabrics.