Artist Statement

An artist is a storyteller, a timeless Scheherazade of the psyche. My art is a psychological diary of my personal translation of the individual’s journey through life. It is a kind of fairytale; a story that teaches, both symbolic and narrative. My heroines are the focal points of my paintings and mixed media pieces as we are all the heroines of our own stories. The archetypesI I use serve to highlight the commonality of the experience.

My stories are women’s stories, focusing on our relationships and our roles. My exploration of what it means to be a woman encompasses both secular Madonna’s and temptresses. These contrasting images appear throughout my work; the mountain woman, anchoring, strong and formidable vs. the floating woman, unstable, diagonal and off balance. My interest in contrast is manifest on every level in these works… in the relationships - male, female, mother, child, in the aesthetics - beautiful, horrific, florid, unadorned, and in the psychological content - good, evil, nurturing, devouring. These angels and devils, monster women and bite-sized males are mythological in form and feminist in perspective.

The mythology in these works are universal, the influences international. Everything in this art is alive, reflecting the animism of primitive people whose life and art is intertwined. I am interested in the ornateness and spatial quality of Persian art and the luminous colors of Medieval alter pieces. Medieval art’s narrative form and its small vignettes contained within the larger picture also emerge as characteristics of my own work. Just as many microcosmic worlds form one universe, many influences unite to translate my vision.

Through it all, it is the beauty of that vision that matters most. I want my art to be provocative, but most of all, it must be magical. I relate to the world visually through color and line. These are the elements which carry the works sensuality and message. Color, transcendent and glowing, is the music - line the rhythm.

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