Location: United States
Making my mixed media pieces I frequently use my block prints as a starting point. Around these block prints I add elements created in many different mediums that are all created by me. These include drawing and painting in many different mediums. Conceptually I am always looking for a way to convey a love of nature that is not just copying pictures using tight realism drawing and painting techniques. I prefer to simplify and add some of my spirit to my work that is more what I see out in nature. One never sees birds long enough to get minute details, rather they are shapes and gestures from the birds as they stop to eat at the feeder or fly by. Trees can be laboriously drawn and painted, but I choose to abstract them into simpler forms on these pieces. My concept is to capture and excite the viewer and encourage them to get out and see the world around them. The woods, water features, birds and fields are my inspiration. By enhancing the love of them, I hope to set others on a path of deep appreciation and stewardship.
Always inspired by nature in the western NY region where I was raised, I use several different art mediums to achieve the nature message to my viewers.
“Flight Sets Us Free on Pretty Wings”
The birds I see and hear daily on our Lake Erie cottage property inspired this piece. The Eagle that hangs out on a branch over looking the lake represents my husband of 52 years who watches out for me from the universal unknown. The song birds and gulls are always flitting around on the lake, the yard and the cottage woods. My sons gave me my "Indian name" when they were very young- Pretty Wings. My work is very narrative.
This piece represents many trees I have loved from many woods I have owned. They include large white pine, which represents my husband's New England roots, beech trees that I have in a grove in my back gallery woods that I would visit every day walking or on skis, Birch trees that are so striking in white and black and the patterns that bugs can leave on infected trees on some of the trunks. The roots represent the communication that exists between trees from underground. I like to thing my communication was more fluid like ferns and my husband's was more linear.
“Queen of the Woods Arrives in Spring”
Our winters are long and drawn out. There is much joy in my heart when spring finally arrives parading out its colors and beauty in my gardens and the woods.
“Seasons Change - Winter Becomes Spring”
Waiting for the snow to melt and move on to pleasant spring breezes and beautiful emerging flowers can seem endless. I started this piece while winter was hanging on and before I have finished it spring flowers and coupling birds were in their full glory!
“Roots Hold Me Close”
