Printmaking

Mixed Media

The mixed media prints that I make are experiments with processes to develop an image to its most dramatic interpretation. For example, I have used gold leaf to emphasize the value of a human embryo in Dilemma - Denial.

Many of my prints deal with situations experienced by myself or women I have known. I do not concentrate on women’s issues but shared or personal experiences develop from my mind into art through the creative process.

Nature Drawing - Fractal Series - 1 Guanacaste, Costa Rica

When walking on the beaches.. Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, and Cost Rica, there are certain times of day, ebb and flow, sediment viscosity, conditions for Nature to create beautiful but temporary drawings. The patterns I have photographed are fractals in nature that repeat on the beach, on the river deltas, on the mountain ranges, all over our earth and on other planets that have ever had running water. A fractal is a natural phenomenon or a mathematical set that exhibits a repeating pattern that displays at every scale. It is also known as expanding symmetry or evolving symmetry. If the replication is exactly the same at every scale, it is called a self-similar pattern.

Nature Drawing - Abstract Series - 1 Guanacaste, Costa Rica

As an Abstract Expressionist painter, I often see paintings in rocks or formations when I am walking on beaches or fields.. wherever I am.. Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Cost Rica, Europe, Japan.. there are so many opportunities to select a spot through my view finder and document Natures painting and drawing. Our beaches in Costa Rica have black, blue, beige, pink, and white sands that vary in time of year and vicinity. These colours and the ocean flow allow for beautiful contrast and design for an abstracted 'painting' image.

Woodcut

I love the texture and expressive imagery that I find in wood grain that nature has provided. As I develop these images with color and technique, the final result reveals experiences that I or my friends or family have endured perhaps many years in the past, rather, an exorcism of memories.

But, I am more concerned with creating the image by describing the most information with minimal form and color, using these elements for their dramatic and emotion inducing qualities.

Ceramic Prints

Ceramic Print Painting - When I made mud pies as a child, I loved the feel of the dirt and clay on my hands. Later, in school, that fun experience returned as I experimented with clay and glazes. I prefer hand built methods for pottery and making prints and paintings in clay, using found discarded materials and the Raku process for creating images.

Etchings

My first etching, ‘The Old Place’, was juried into several national and international juried exhibits.

I am attracted to old barns and covered bridges when I think of making etchings. I grew up on a farm and realize how fortunate I was to have experienced that privileged childhood. But I also realize that the small farm is slowly disappearing and giving way to the large factory style farm. Along with that, barns are being demolished all across the country. Beautiful, hardworking structures are being torn down for progress and development. I try to document the barns that I have seen for current and future generations of viewers to experience.