When making art, as opposed to commercial art, it’s not a goal or destination, it’s trying to express my imagination, a journey into memory, texture, worry, wonder. It is practicing expressing the ineffable internal conscious that sees the darkness and the light.
The muse for this series lives in discarded materials, once valued now unwanted. Made from a library of cultural fodder with seemingly nothing in common, icons and items once treasured are now trash are on the palate. I resurrect these items to understand.
Mixed Media: Abuelita Tommacita
When my Grandma Tommy died, I inherited her headstrong nature and her costume jewelry. I didn’t inherit her faith though, and while I untangled roseries from faux pearls I wished her spirit to rest in the vision she had of heaven. This is my alter, her things mixed with my mothers, mixed with my own. It is devoted to faith in faiths, to love, laughter and brightness. May we all rest in goodness despite our differences.
Evo Chip Tribe
Weave a story of history, industrial evolution and culture and you’ll find treasure in trash, our new tribe. I tried to bring his thoughtful, holistic, familiar, sentimental, nonjudgmental nature into the present tense and he is looking at us like we look at him. Both natural and man-made, he is touched by nature but is plugged in and wading through the wires.
Midas Klimt
When I found the burl carving, his face reminded me of the wise men, the one who gave gold, knowing that the material was necessary. Yet it’s a tricky thing wealth? You want it, but it doesn’t always bring happiness, or satisfaction. But if you don’t have any then you’re likely suffering. Juxtaposing his venerable face with the textural elements of Gustav Klimt, who used gold leaf and pattern invoked opulence, decadence painted the quintessential attraction to objects of worth. In contrast the title invokes the mythical King Midas’ greed which lead to his heavy metal demise. This piece is their lovechild, seemingly benign yet unnatural and curious.
Aphrodite Rising
As an artist we’re taught about the “gaze” and I’ve felt it, lived through the good and bad of it. I see feminine beauty as idealized, taboo, private, sacred, ancient, worshiped, judged and vilified all at once. Imagery forces us into “boxes” like virgin, mother, whore, witch, or crone. When you look at this piece do you look closer, are you staring and look away feeling love, shame, fascination, desire, regret, anger, is it sexist? I see contradictions in messaging, be beautiful but be forbidden, be strong yet remain vulnerable. I’m ok with being all of these things, I am lopsided, I am a happy and angry woman, I am ok and you are too.
Minerva Plays Well With Others
I’m walking and admiring the beauty of life on our planet, basking in the effortless cycles of growth and death that earth provides. This altar’s central symbol is an Owl who represents Minerva the goddess of wisdom guiding us towards life, its cycles and knowing. But plastic leaves, broken strands of old broken jewelry? Do they represent life or are they part of the refuse that wisdom and life are drowning in. Quirky.