ARTIST STATEMENT

 Throughout my lifetime, I’ve been fascinated by the human psyche.  My ongoing studies in Jungian psychology, dream interpretation, Eastern philosophy, numerous types of alternative medicine, the I Ching and mandala drawing as well as my active meditation practice have served to answer many of my own personal questions in understanding this realm. I've also always always been interested in how our emotions are affected by color and have spent the past twenty years studying how various colors are tied into our psyche and how they also affect us on a physical and psychoemotional level. We are, in fact, so influenced by color that by noticing which colors we're drawn to at a given time, we can understand where we need to bring balance into our lives and into the energies that flow through our physical bodies. Having color in our lives, can literally heal our bodies and our souls.

Carl Jung, the famous psychiatrist and originator of Jungian psychology, describes the ‘collective unconscious’ as the ‘reservoir of the experiences of our species’. I, personally, initially discovered this realm while studying classical piano at a very early age. While playing, I often had the experience of the music playing through me rather than myself playing the piano and I would experience a sensation of deep inter-connectedness with this ‘greater consciousness’. Now, through meditation and my artwork, it is easier for me to access this feeling, but to articulate the experience in simple words continues to be nearly impossible. So, it is through my painting that I find a language and vocabulary to express some of what I’ve gleaned – including an indisputable feeling that all living things (the planet included) are inter-connected and inseparable.

When I begin an abstract painting, I always start by noticing which main color I'm being drawn to on that day, and that's where I begin. I have no attachment to (and usually no idea of) the final outcome. I relax into a meditative state and step completely out of the way of my ego to allow whatever wants to come forth to be expressed through the language of the oil paint.

After that, it’s up to the viewer to interpret what is revealed on the canvas -- and each person is permitted to take away a message that is completely personal to him or her.


"If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite." -- William Blake

Artists and others who inspire my work:

Jackson Pollock Mark Rothko Cy Twombly Vassily Kandinsky Hans Hoffman Willem de Kooning Helen Frankenthaler Pablo Picasso Georgia O'Keeffe Lucian Freud Vincent Van Gogh Jasper Johns Paul Klee Hokusai Betty Woodman Ishmael Soto Brother Thomas Niki de Saint Phalle Thrangu Rinpoche Lao Tzu Carl Jung