Title:  Circles, Figure, Birds
Dimensions:  60 x 60 inches
Medium: Oil & mixed media on canvas

Title:  Leaf Pattern
Dimensions:  46 x 46 inches
Medium: Oil on canvas

Title:  Blue with Birds
Dimensions:  30 x 30 inches
Medium: Oil on canvas

Title:  Yellow Drawing
Dimensions:  36 x 36 inches
Medium: Oil & mixed media on canvas

Title:  Birds II
Dimensions: 30 x 30 inches
Medium: Oil & mixed media on canvas
SOLD

Title:  Pattern V
Dimensions:  46 x 46 inches
Medium: Oil on canvas

** Additional Works Available, please contact the gallery

Artist Statement:

My paintings and drawings use pattern and depth to explore the complexities of human interaction and our relationship to the greater world.  With the problems of war, poverty, oppression and environmental destruction in our country and around the globe, I have been considering more seriously the consequences of the individualist mentality pervasive in American culture. 

The African concept of ubuntu, or a person is a person through other people, contrasts with our western notions of independence and self-sufficiency.  While my work does not contain any overt social or political messages, it is my contemplation on these issues of interconnection.  When I first began working with the theme of interconnection, I was interested in the idea of how the physical is connected to and by the spiritual, and used a grid to symbolize that web of connection.  That theme has expanded and become even more important to me through my studies of nature and social justice, which show the intricate systems of dependence that make up the natural world and teach how the health of the individual is dependent on the health of the larger community and environment.  The patterns I use to explore this theme are inspired by nature and human activity, such as leaves, birds, and human silhouettes.  I also use the strong visual component of depth by building up layers of oil paint while still revealing the previous layers.  This layering effect can signify the coexistence of the spiritual and the physical, history, progress or connection to origin.  Through pattern and layering the surface of the painting becomes a visual space that invites the viewer into contemplation suggested by their own associations to the imagery.