My paintings are works of fiction based on countless fragments of truth that I have experienced in my life. My landscape paintings are mosaics of the Northern California environment I live in, and of which I dream. The two idioms of fictional figures and dreamscapes are interchangeable for me. Thus a landscape is both a memory and a fact. The figures are depicted in the midst of dramas and dances which also have overlays of fictional, theatrical qualities in which few details are explicit.

I am interested in non-literal realizations that expect the viewer to bring their own narrative and myth into the viewing experience. As a committed and passionate colorist, I am exploring the interplay of hues and contrasts with the rhythms and sense of motion that they evoke in juxtaposition with one another. This creates truth overlapping fiction, overlapping transparency, overlapping symbol, and narrative. The landscape and the human figure provide punctuation for my visual dramas.

I believe that no one artist has or can paint the truth. The work of all artists is necessary to describe the human experience, condition, and dilemma. Each work adds a piece to the whole.

Some of my paintings are titled “Sacred Heart” because my Zen teacher once asked me how I could manifest in the world the dharma teachings and meditation skills I had been learning.
As an artist, I quickly replied that I would paint ten thousand hearts! In Asian tradition, ten thousand is a synonym for an indefinitely large number. In Christianity, the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a symbol of God’s boundless and passionate love for humankind. My paintings seldom represent a literal heart, but represent the light, truth, love, and wisdom that emanates from the heart.

I expand contemporary concepts of drawing & painting by uniquely combining figurative works on paper with textile backgrounds. These backgrounds are exclusively composed of repurposed textiles and damaged secondhand clothing, much of which I source from my own closet. This process serves to explore my own complicated relationship with fashion: after having studied fashion at Pratt, I remain seduced by it as an art form in its own right and as a vehicle for self-expression. Nevertheless, next to Big Oil, the clothing industry is the second largest polluter in the world. I’m interested in the malaise that comes from the growing knowledge of the fashion industry’s nefarious ecological impact. Through my work, I explore this tension between the modern experience of beauty, consumption, and industrialization—and the long-term environmental impact of the clothing we wear.

Sugar is something that your body uses to make energy. Sugar is transported by blood into the heart and the brain. This “Sugar Rush” piece exemplifies that rush, excitement, and happiness. This image of a woman demonstrates the extreme dichotomy between bondage and freedom. Some people may view the ropes with the discomfort of being restrained. Other people may see the restrained woman and find excitement in giving up control and submitting to another
person.

Sugar Rush acknowledges that there is division in the polarity of how this is interpreted by the viewer. The intention is to showcase the rush of excitement that the person feels when submitting. Creating space to “let go” can bring so much happiness. The sweet rush of excitement, like sugar, courses through the body, mind, and veins until the only feeling left is bliss.

This series is titled Instant Gratification. It is inspired by the 1972 Stanford Marshmallow Experiment, which revealed our innate struggle between impulse and patience. That simple choice—to wait or indulge—echoes powerfully in today’s world, where attention spans shrink and instant pleasure often outweighs lasting reward.

As a lifelong painter, I once thrived in slow, deliberate creation. But I’ve felt my own shift: the urge to work faster, to seek quick visual payoff. Photography became my response—immediate, immersive, and a departure from the solitude of the studio. Each piece begins with a photo capturing indulgence, thrill, or vice. I then digitally manipulate the image—heightening color and texture—before layering in mixed media, paint, and embellishments by hand.

The series naturally adopted the language of contemporary Pop Art: bold, saturated, and rooted in mass culture. Stickers play a key role—symbols of fleeting reward and digital affirmation, evoking both childhood and our current emoji-filled lives. They speak to how we brand ourselves in an age of clicks, filters, and curated expression.

This hybrid process reflects the core tension of the work: a craving for immediacy alongside a longing for depth. It honors my background in painting while acknowledging my changing pace, my aging hands, and the distractions of a digitized world.

Instant Gratification is both a personal reckoning and a cultural critique—inviting viewers to consider not just what brings them pleasure, but how and why they pursue it. In a world wired for now, what does it mean to wait?

The Story of Sui Genesis.

These flowers are the manifestation of my memories from travels in Spain and India, where I have seen incredible beauty in the wilderness of lakes and forests. The ‘Blue Pimpernel’ flowers caught my eye as I wandered the Tibidabo hills; they were sprawling everywhere unnoticed to the passersby, and their delicate azure hues combined with tones of red evoked the artist in me. Similarly, strolling the grounds of the ancient temples of Kerala, I noticed deserted ponds covered in green murky algae, dead leaves, and flies hovering, but in these wastelands, I found the most beautiful blue and red lotuses standing upright in the muddy waters, like the captain of an abandoned ship. Their resilience and willingness to survive taught me much. In the barren lands of Rajasthan, where nothing grows, I found bushes covered in thorns and tiny scanty leaves, but within their spindly branches, I saw the delicate hues of blue jasmine. The heady perfume these flowers emanated and the pure beauty of their form made me feel like they were princesses of a withering castle. It’s so ironic that these blue and red flowers grow under abysmal conditions but they maintain their dignity and grace despite the odds. So this composition is my homage to wilderness flowers that no one notices- and I entitle it Sui Generis, which means unique and of their own kind.

This installation is a cluster of flowers; intricately detailed and multi-layered. Each flower is drilled and adhered to a metal base and suspended from the wall. Inspired by the streetside wildflowers of Spain and India. Concept- Beauty in the banal.

In the creative process, I use different media: oil on canvas, collages, acrylic on canvas, mixed media; oil pastels, acrylic, and watercolors on paper. For many years my favorite technique was collages, but in the last decade, the majority of my paintings are oil on canvas.

Each time inspirations come from different ways: travels, literature, music, nature, also, from the unified fields of consciousness and unconsciousness.
I think, my style is unclassified, some artworks have elements of Impressionism, and others- Pointillism, or Surrealism.

At this moment I am aiming at the resemblance, I observing nature, humans, and animals and transferring them into the canvas by signs. In order to achieve particular expressions I stylize, and reshape the forms of nature and other objects.

My goal is to create images that evoke a story of some kind that often moves far beyond the relatively literal boundaries of traditional photography. Images may be simply documentary, invoke a sense of time and place, or resonate as an abstract blend of color, shape, or form. Others provoke an indefinable question that does not readily yield answers without further study and reflection.

I draw from a wide range of photographic subjects such as landscapes, botanicals, and wildlife as well as urban environments and people. I follow an intuitive yet somewhat ordered process of layering or merging portions of photos until an image that speaks to me emerges. Most often this is more likely a random bit of serendipity than deliberate intent. Images often suggest a sense of time and place or reflect a rich and ethereal interplay of color, shape, or form. Images may provoke an indefinable question that does not readily yield answers without further study and reflection. Ultimately, my images provide a vehicle to stimulate both my imagination and that of the viewer, leaving one free to interpret and create an individual sense of meaning and value.

Mary Witkop Coffield began her foray into abstract paintings by translating shapes and patterns viewed under the microscope during her career as a scientist onto a canvas. Her work progressed to encompass imagery steeped in nature, replete with biomorphic forms. For her, the boundary between figurative and abstract is not strictly defined, a boundary over which she may stray.

Paint is applied generously to her canvas, using a multitude of tools. Paint is dripped with a pipette, splashed with a brush, slathered with a palette knife, or poured from a jar. She might use her finger or palms to achieve the desired effect. Experimentation introduces an element of randomness which she then manipulates to achieve a degree of intentionality. This process allows her to share her own unique vision.

I paint because I am an artist and it’s something I do in my life. Creative expressionism. I am what’s called a “visionary” painter as I usually don’t paint realism but rather the visions that I see from within.