It began with expressing my love for art through oils on canvas, as I found the medium very fluid and easy to work with.

Acrylics lend a brilliant texture to the board, are luminous, and may be used to paint a splendid array of art forms.

There’s also a display of imagination through colors and hues with a lucid depiction of the sense around the work.

I choose to narrate stories through abstract forms of art and have also been currently doing a lot of abstract “form” play through the depiction of conceptual art.

Pulling from the experiences I’ve gathered in my nigh quarter century spent alive, I aim to investigate the worlds within and around me through camp, sarcasm, and humor. And as a young queer white woman, my goal isn’t to endear myself or explain myself but to simply bear myself. The pieces I create are attempts at illustrating a thought or feeling or experience I’ve found fascinating, and typically have to do with mental health, femininity, queerness, and privilege. I hope to shine a light on the unremarkable in a remarkable way; the things we take for granted are often the things least explored.

Photography has been my passion since early childhood. My motivation is to discover and capture the beauty, even when it is not always readily self-evident, that surrounds us continuously in all areas of our everyday lives. I believe the finest images are those that are serious yet playful, aesthetically appealing yet a bit quirky. As both an artist and an admirer, my favorite photographs tend to be ones whose contents speak loudly for themselves — even when it is not immediately clear exactly what they are saying. They seek to inspire their viewers to wrestle with their intriguing contents and, as a result, ponder various aspects of our surrounding world in new and unique ways.

Rather than seek a signature style or body of work, what characterizes my work is the unexpected in terms of medium, subject matter, thinking process, and style. I enjoy each piece being somewhat disruptive and different from anything that has come before it. This approach reminds me of how each dream I have is always in an entirely new location, and I enjoy this element of surprise each night. I draw from nature, the man-made world of architecture, still life, the human figure, and the inner musings of my own mind. Although I mainly paint abstractly on canvas in oil, I also use acrylic, charcoal, collage, and found objects. For the most part, the process of creating is more important to me than the end result. John Murray, my teacher at the New Art Center, states: “Painting is about paint.”

Many photographers are influenced, or inspired, by high-end equipment and digital enhancement. But I am inspired and motivated by older, more traditional, and unusual materials and processes. “Cheekwood Gardens” was photographed using a vintage camera with no light meter and color infrared film. A light meter wasn’t necessary because color infrared, like black and white infrared, records heat, not light. This image was not digitally enhanced. This film “saw” the cool sky as black, foliage as magenta, and hot, bright light as white, making the image eerie and surreal.

In my figurative art photography. I am highly influenced by my subjects. I choose models who are unafraid to be themselves or characters they assume. Sometimes, my part in the creation is merely releasing the shutter. Models bring costumes, props, and ideas to the shoot. And many are also artists with an innate sense for composition and natural poses (not the generic, cliched, and artificial poses of many pro models). My subjects are natural and real; hence, the photos are too. I often give the model a lot of credit for creating a memorable image. In “Juliet,” Alexandra picked a dead rose from the ones she had brought. She placed one on her mouth and took on a subtly sad expression. “I am Juliet,” she said. And so she was. She might be saying, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” But the rose she was smelling, and perhaps kissing, was long past beauty and aroma, foreshadowing her character’s tragic end.

I am a self-taught artist working in water-based mediums, mainly acrylic, but also at times gouache and watercolor. I am a hyperrealism painter fascinated by the world around me. I am very drawn to shiny surfaces as well as transparent objects, especially when the lighting brings them to life. I look for beauty in everyday objects that most people take for granted or just don’t truly see as they are. The seemingly boring and mundane subjects can truly be like magnets if portrayed in the right light. The shiny metal is one of those materials that can host endless visions….the light hits it and the reflections are captured on the smooth, sleek surface…people and animals especially the eyes…an artist’s dream! My future art plans are to paint the countless subjects I have chosen to become paintings and to share my art with as many people as I can.

“To take my inner visions with my hands and create a work of art for you the viewer… That is the ultimate in self-expression.”

78 years old California native, who loves using bright primary colors and abstract shapes, and hidden sayings. Most of my paintings contain many layers plus at least 2 or 3 other paintings underneath I enjoy painting over paintings gives lots of depth and texture and though when I was in school, I was sent to the office quite a bit for daydreaming and doodling it was a crime in the 50’s now in certain schools it is a class. When covid began I started painting full-time again and have never stopped. I have a studio in my house where I spend a lot of my days, it is a mess but not for me. Love creating art using different materials. Recently I have been using lots of different acrylic mediums and leaf blowers spread the paints and ink, so now instead of getting sent to the office I get paid and I get to daydream and journal my life.

Time spent creating is precious, therapeutic time that enables me to formulate my place in the world and fully realize my identity. In 2010, I made a promise to an NYC Gallery owner, and to myself, that I would paint and create art every day. For the most part, I have kept that promise. For me, silly as it may sound, creating art is something comparable to breathing and eating. It brings joy to my soul. It is Zen-Like. Regardless of the subject matter, or not, my work has evolved into a combination of two-dimensional, mixed-media pieces. It ranges from figurative to representational, to organic abstractions.

Currently, I am expanding a series that I first exhibited this past summer. It is entitled, “Squiggles, Globules, and Other Urban Marks.” Here, I am exploring more spontaneous mark-making with an emphasis on (but not limited to) abstraction. Movement, texture, and vibrancy are all paramount in these selections. These paintings thus far, are an intersection of representational and abstraction. I enjoy manipulating visual plains and geometric shapes to intersect, overlap, and create a visual distance and depth. The play of raw canvas, through transparent and translucent planes, and ultimately to juicy opaqueness, is very important to me. A sort of advanced cave drawing and painting is my goal.

I enjoy presenting a painting and allowing the viewer to stand back and take a moment to look through what I have created. Regardless of the subject matter, I love to present works with open-ended narratives. This allows the viewers to establish relationships and create their own dialogue based on the images that I provide for them.

My artistic expression is intricately woven into human experiences, reflective practice, and experiential learning through the creation of art. I utilize quilting, handcrafting, and photography to examine the diverse facets of contemporary culture and society with meticulous scrutiny. Positioned within the arts and culture domain, it honors human imagination as manifested through art. Design thinking is fundamental to my methodology as I transform personal insights and concepts into tangible embodiments. Additionally, I creatively use digital technology to bring my ideas to life and craft a distinctive, engaging perspective that allows viewers to connect with me.