ARTIST STATEMENT
In a new series of floral paintings, words like dancing, alive, flow, rejoice, spontaneous are all part of the lexicon. Each painting starts with a verb or adjective instead of a noun. “What is this?” is replaced by “How does this feel?” or “What is the action?” Through the use of color, textural mark-making, brushstrokes, and fluid, drippy paint, each one is filled with a movement that elicits an action or emotion.
Before starting a painting, I work with a still life arrangement or reference photo of flowers. The flower shapes are then drawn in their simplest form. As I paint, I allow the pigment to mingle, flow, and meander across the paper. Bold color paired with neutrals and hard edges paired with soft or lost edges creates a feeling of aliveness and dance. Some flowers remain identifiable, and others become a pattern of shape and color. The result is something akin to controlled chaos.
When I started painting these florals during the 2020 pandemic, I did not imagine how much these paintings would lift me emotionally during a time of great upheaval. I could block out the news of the virus or the US election as I brushed, dabbed, blotted, and created. Each painting taps into that inner source of optimism and hope - that power that art wields - that can weather difficult times.