THE WOMEN – MIXED MEDIA COLLAGES
My style emanates from an exploration of the theme of women in our world as icons and monoliths, while simultaneously existing as life channels and even decorative objects. I depict images of women alone, women with infants, and women with women. I pay close attention to the moods of the women, while using a bold approach to my chosen medium, usually recycled materials with mixed media collages or oils on canvas.
The themes of women in society interest me greatly, how they can exist as axes around which many lives turn and angels on which many people depend, while maintaining a calmness, a control which most often goes unrecognized. I am interested in depicting the pensiveness, the satisfaction, and the other-worldliness, and the humor this can give to women.
These depictions of figures and faces are done in a contemporary style, with a fearless approach to color, shape, and line. A bold graphic approach is central to my most recent work.
The process begins with a rough sketch drawn directly onto the paper, and then I begin cutting the various origami papers, teabags, beads, or other media, to create part of the basic composition. Currently I am also working with reclaimed billboard vinyl as part of my collage base and background materials, and working with the colors used in pop culture communications to become an intrinsic part of my compositions and decision-making process. I then layer many drawings of world-textile-based designs, and mix and match these, Celtic with African with Indian, etc., to achieve a solid, whole composition made of many elements. My color schemes are directly related to the salvaged signage and recycled items I use as my base. Red and Black are a running color scheme, based on the strength of the simplicity of this scheme, as well as the symbolism of both colors in art, culture, religion, and literature. I also explore the use of commercially printed journal papers and calendar pages from my recent past to incorporate another aspect of recycling, leaving the numbers, dates, and my own writing visible for the most part, to support the idea of women and their role in our culture, and more largely, in the world.
The images reflect colorful, solitary women usually, in the tradition of Fauvist works and folk art depictions of women/icons such as the Virgen de Guadalupe. I am fascinated by the relationship of women with the Creator, and women with the Church and Tradition. When more than one woman is present, I am depicting the relationships between the characters, a mood, a meaning, which will communicate to the viewer a sense of what may be going on between the characters on the canvas or between the image and the viewer. In my compositions I work to include enough detail and pattern so that the viewer can see something new in each viewing.
Angels are a recurring theme in my work in that I see women as angels (strong, spiritual beings and entities) in culture, and I like to explore the folkloric and religious dimensions of these protectors in world cultures.
Color and line express mood and symbolism in these works, and rather than imitate skin colors one might see in nature, the approach to depicting faces is open-ended and not confined to a reflection of reality.
Great influences are my Southern upbringing (Memphis, Tennessee) and my exposure to Southern music and bold unapologetic folk art. The colorfulness of the South and its humor sensibilities come through in my color work and my approach to expression of character. Other interests which influence my approach are Outsider Art (simplicity), African masks, Persian miniatures and Indian paintings (design and decorative linework), Mexican icon and altar works of the Madonna (color, beads, dimension), Fauvist works (color) and humorous popular art (facial expressions and attitude). Artists I feel most influenced by are Frida Kahlo, Howard Finster, Henri Matisse, Raoul Dufy, Amedeo Modigliani, and Edward Gorey, as well as a myriad of unnamed Celtic, Native American, First Nation, Aboriginal, and African artists whose strong iconic images and endless sense of design inform almost every face I imagine.
