Artist Statement
I am an interdisciplinary research-based artist working with paint, sewing and clay. My art explores the rhetorical impact of visual arts by using patterns, inspired by traditional quilts, needlepoint, and vintage textiles, to honor women historically associated with these arts and to challenge the structures and operations that tend to marginalize certain kinds of artistic production while centralizing others. These patterns create a system of communication bringing historical content into contemporary dialogue by abstracting the familiar to reflect a new and evolving narrative. With clay I can express content three dimensionally; with paint the shape is often revealed through the manipulation of material. Layers of thick impasto acrylic paint and medium explore the interaction between space and form, interior and exterior with the use of pattern and repetition. The painting surfaces are formed using textile patterns with various paint techniques and materials and reference American Abstraction, Color Field and 1970s Feminist Art, while creating a contemporary vision to express a lived experience as a woman. The resulting abstract patterning is the spontaneous outcome of process. Using images historically associated with women brings women’s issues into contemporary conversation in an effort to bring awareness to the pervasive inequity issues that women still face today.