Jack of Hearts
30" x 48"
acrylic, oil marker, charcoal, graphite, road map, playing cards, collage on wood panel
2009

Belfast
33.5 x 46 inches
mixed media on panel

Hyacinth
18.5 x 24 x 2.5 inches
mixed media on box

High Barbary

12 x 24 inches
mixed media on canvas

Samson & Delilah
24" x 48"
acrylic, oil marker, charcoal, wanted poster, paper collage on canvas
 

Rocky Top
24"x 29"
acrylic and collage on canvas
 

** Additional Works Available, please contact the gallery

Artist Statement:

My mixed media collages combine historic and graphic images in textured color field environments.  Removing figures from their cast off status in thrift store books and garage sale finds I add them to my own worlds; I give them new life as the classic characters of the literary works I surround myself with. The figures become heroic again when they begin to interact with each other on the canvas.  One of my favorite quotes is by the Surrealist Max Ernst: “collage is two unknown elements meeting on a third unknown plane”. I begin with these unknowns and build, seeking out, with glue and paint, the reasons for the interactions I am seeing.

Two scraps of paper lying together or the random colors happened upon during the day slowly form themselves into the final work.  I often feel as if I had happened upon a scene that is elusive or impenetrable and I try to make sense of the melancholic rituals which I observe coming together.   Often, a random phrase read or lyric of a song overheard while deep in the process sheds light on the work I have been creating.   The painting forms and I find I have built a new story, new characters, to add to the lexicon.