Painting for me is an escape from the demands of my daily life. The moment I move my palette or brush across a canvas transforms me into a more fluid spirit. I’m not always aware of where or what I will do next. It is the medium that drives its own force and allows for me to interpret how it is speaking to me. Sometimes the message is loud and clear and sometimes it is a whisper that reveals itself to me. The final answer to what I have been channeling exposes itself when the work tells me it is complete. Each piece is alive with its own story, its own life persona and passions. Not every piece will attract the same audience or awareness. As an artist, I believe the energy shared between the artist and their work develops into a symbiotic relationship with the observer who gets it.
As a child I was always creative. At six I taught myself the principles of ballet and dance by buying a book and an old pair of toe slippers from a neighbor’s garage sale
As a young adult, my teenage years were faced with challenges, abuse and trials. I was searching for an out. Poetry saved me. I keep many of my journals and my writings secured. They have followed me throughout my life avoiding the trauma of destruction through fire and flood. I left Philadelphia and joined the U.S. Navy at 19 to run as far as I could from that chaotic space. Those were the dark burnt umber days.
The next few years were fraught with drama, as those in their twenties frequently experience. Death and babies and moving from Philadelphia to Florida, then San Diego and Virginia, back to California then landing in Omaha, Nebraska, the heartland filled with Genuinely good people. It was so foreign to what I was used to. My husband is from this culture and has been my Hero and savior since we meet in San Diego in the Navy. As you can imagine being a naive young woman in the military in the early 1980’s can lead to Mars black nightmares and Ptsd later in life, but those memories are for the dark stormy pieces. Every painted oil of stormy seas carries away the dark places in my life.
Later, Nebraska to Austin, Texas where we have planted our roots. I did have the opportunity after graduating from the University of Texas to move to Milan, Italy with a 1-year-old, my Viridian son James while 35 weeks pregnant with my daughter Cara Maria. Cara was born in Casa Della Cura La Madonnonina, fairly fitting since Cara Maria, my magenta, are the first two words of the Hail Mary in Italian. I do have a devotion to the blessed mother , the great Titanium white , forgiver of all my sins, for I feel like she is the only female deity that was ever treasured growing up as a Catholic.
The ocean has always been my calling. It summoned me to escape Philadelphia and join the Navy. I fell further in love while living in Florida, San Diego and Hampton Roads, Virginia where I spent most of my days on the beach painting Watercolors and gaining lessons and peace in the waves.
Today, I live part-time outside of Austin, Tx and I also have a beautiful beach house nestled in the Naples yellow dunes with views of the Gulf of Mexico. My vision is becoming brighter with age.
I have also always been a scuba diver and have the great fortune of visiting and diving many of Gaia’s great depths, Cozumel is one of my favorites. The pace is slowed like oils.
Today my focus is about the sea. Phthalo, cerulean, Manganese and cobalt move with me, of course guided by Titanium white. It is the place that takes me away to the Mediterranean Sea or the Gulf of Mexico. It is a life full of memories and smiles, calm and sexy, beaming through the waves. It is that moment in the Seascape that defines how turbulent or serene the effect of the colors and composition will have on the surveyor or witness of its aesthetic and narrative.
I work in Oils, watercolor and oil pastels, for me the basis is always sketching. The horizon is the start of each piece for me. The definition between the sky and seas gives me my bearings and directs how the scene will progress. Seascapes and Landscapes are expressions from the heart of the artist only to be interpreted by their audience.
I hope my audience will appreciate my exploration of spirit in the energy that guides my every piece.
