The breaking up of and the struggle to occupy or obtain space; these are the elements I focus on in my work. My process begins with a finished painting. Using the composition of this finished painting, I begin to paint over areas, sand down spaces, and leave parts untouched. Out of this constant flux of creating new and destroying old, forms begin to take shape, struggling for their position in the painting and imposing themselves upon the debris.

A recent conceptual interest of mine is the painted portrait, in particular the depiction of the artist in his or her studio. These are all colleagues and friends who have invited me into their spaces and allowed me to document them with their works in progress. Along with the artists’ likenesses, I hope to capture a sense of their immersion in their art as well as the solitary nature of their endeavor. I use the ‘archaic’ process of egg tempera, a medium that imposes a certain stillness to the treatment of a subject through its slow, methodic, and cumulative means of creating an image.

For me, the world exists as both a tangible and an intangible-that is to say, real-construct. The latter consists of preconscious and subconscious phenomena: the invisible things that motivate us and to which we respond often without knowing what we are doing or why. Mythology, magic and art take shape as manifestations of this world. Hence my paintings may be understood as an exploration of the Real and its relation to the tangible.

I am the product of an American mobile culture that runs deep and far–back to pioneer days, wagon trains, the boom of paved highways, Route 66, and on up to congested lane-multiplying interstates of today. Our culture and fabricated environments continue building up around the auto at a frantic pace. Drive to work, take kids to school, fast food, shopping malls, and of course vacation–the Classic American Road Trip. My fondest memories center on trips like the annual summer tour of Kentucky State Parks or the first long vacation to D.C. in the 60's.–family of 6 crammed in a Beetle.

Violent events leave us alienated and disturbed, yet, paradoxically, draw us closer together. My work centers on people's experiences and their immediate surroundings after tragedy, and the consequent inevitability of becoming accustomed to these shattering experiences.

Punch Kiss–the period before a miracle, a lesson almost learned, a sweet punch in the face, something filled with so much emotion that it is on the edge of explosion. This outburst is so huge it would infiltrate the space inbetween your thoughts, everyone‚s thoughts. And it will change you forever. It is a light in your mind. A fresh deep breath, a whisper in the wind. The sun. It is a song that holds your heart, and roots you down. It is buzzing and smacking, sliding, extending, pushing, persisting, insisting, flowering, blooming, tuning, fine tuning, working, rearranging.

My current body of work began as an investigation of specific detached expressions and the homogeny of young, female models in current fashion photography. Found images were placed in the context of painting to confront my audience with the alien yet seductive nature of the hyper-real. The work has since grown to encompass a personal exploration concerning the correlation between the idealized and the individual. I now choose women to participate and “try-on” a vacant expression while being photographed.

{In Art there is only one thing that matters: what cannot be explained.}
– George Braque, NoteBooks, (1917-! 947) My work consists of constructed environments that result from attempts to conceptualize modes of production and activities that have traditionally been reserved for women and which have historically been categorized as craft. The processes of weaving, layering and sewing serve to piece together my history; leaving a trail of fragile constructions, that represent my search.

My work deals with memory, sentimentality, nostalgia, sexuality, mystery and the intermingling of possibilities from innocent to macabre. I am interested in the collision of old and new, both in technique and concept and new media's relationship to contemporary painting. I am influenced by traditional art as well as photography and film, the latter especially in its composition and drama.