Graffitied Mind Painting

My ongoing journey of creative expression has recently led me to a new and unexpected place. When I began creating artwork seven years ago it was made entirely of borrowed images and objects. Through the years, I slowly began leaving my own marks on the work. Starting out with light pencil markings to more visible lines and shapes. As my confidence grew, so did the strength of my marks and brush strokes. While I am is still deeply enjoying creating assemblages out of found objects, I now create work made entirely from my own hand. These painting, at first, sprang straight from my subconscious. Lately, however, I have also been using my own photographs as the springboard for my abstract paintings. Abstracting reality. My work is an essential and intensely personal part of my life. It explores and expresses the inner workings of my mind and heart in a way that words cannot express. It is my hope that when people see my work, it will somehow resonate with them on some level, be it intellectual, emotional or spiritual. Artist Profile I am a self-taught artist who lives and creates in Pasadena, CA. In 2004, I found myself in need of an artistic outlet. I began creating two-dimensional thematic montages using imagery from various magazines and clip art sources. With further exploration and a new-found confidence, I began to pursue a different direction, creating, original, three dimensional collages. In 2007 I began exploring the creative world of mixed media and assemblage and fell in love with both of these media. In 2014 I started exploring the unlimited potential of abstract painting. Creating work purely from my own mind, without borrowing images or objects to bring the work to life, has been an exhilarating experience. I now find great joy working in abstract painting and assemblage. In 2008 I began reading up on the history of painting and assemblage, and found inspiration in the work of artists such as Salvador Dali, Joseph Cornell and Kurt Schwitters: and more recently, the paintings of Wassily Kandinsky and Joan Miro. Watching the documentary "The Radiant Child" about the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat had a deep impact on me and I strive to create work, not in his style, but that that has the freedom and spontaneity of his. In 2012 I had the great pleasure of seeing the exhibit "Wonderland - The Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico and the United States".