Chinatown Painting

I grew up in the San Francisco Bay area imbued with the love of art from an early age. My mother was an artist and both of my sisters were also talented and creative. I remember drawing and painting from an early age. While years ago I started out in a more representative style, I found my voice as an abstract artist working with color, line, shape and texture, mixed media and collage. My new body of work is inspired by an evolving local urban environment, urbanization as a condition, and contemporary culture. Working for the past three years from my Venice, CA studio, I was viscerally impacted by the changing neighborhood and demographics: There is the noise and energy of new construction. Resulting structures are rising vertically to unexpected new heights, marginalizing once amply sun lit creative spaces. Graffiti of all shapes and sizes most often depicted on the grey backdrop of concrete, has become rampant as an exciting urban art form communicating an evolving cultural diversity. This is change and evolution, disturbing and exciting at the same time. As an abstract artist, I typically communicate a theme and tonal palette with pattern, mark making, layering and textural effects through mixed media and collage. I strive to communicate beauty and elements of design readily visible in virtually all aspects of everyday life, if only we look. My work often evolves from an emotional response I have to current events and the human condition as I try to balance emotions of sadness or despair with a sense of playfulness. Usually I don’t have a distinct plan in mind when I start a new project. It’s more important to me to work in the moment and non-objectively. As far as process goes, I allow myself the freedom to express without judgment or boundaries. Thoughts and ideas spill out on canvas, panel or paper. Drawings, layered patterns, shapes, colors and textures are merged, transformed and energized with paint, stained papers or newsprint, mylar and other materials. Although passionate about color, I often stick to a neutral palette, working with velvety black charcoal, inks, gouache and acrylic paints, with just an occasional surprise of pigment.