""Natural Grace"" Painting

Art is usually the first thing I do in the morning and the last thing before I go to bed at night. When I close my eyes I see colors and textures and my body becomes fluid inside. Twelve years ago, a masterful retired artist for NBC,inspired me to create art while I was managing a prolonged illness. He helped me to reconnect to my passion, and Mixed Media gave me the freedom from constraint that I desperately needed. Art and creativity touch the very soul of me and are vital to my existence. I can work endlessly, not conscious of time, losing myself to some knowing inside of me that drives my hands to move, to experience and to create. My work expresses what is internal to me, and I never initiate a piece with a specific idea, color or shape. It evolves as I experience and allow myself to let go and to give expression to what is held deep inside of me. The colors, in particular, seem to nourish my spirit, and flow through me. Sometimes I get so engrossed in the colors I cannot seem to get them into form. I feel like swimming in them, breathing them in, or somehow being color itself. It is at these times, I am most prone to using my hands with paint. I build my work with layer upon layer of paper, paint, pastels, gesso, plastics, metals, sea kelp, leaves, flowers and whatever I feel called to use, until the colors and forms create a feeling that I connect with. From the chaos unfolds an image. I like to allow things to fall as they will, then work with what is there. I attempt to use color and texture to entice people to look deeper and deeper, at my art, and at life, stimulating the mind to wander over the edges and linger over the subtle variations of color. I have exhibited my work in California, Oregon, Hawaii, New Zealand, China, and Florida, and I have found that people are attracted to my unusual color and textural themes. At any given time, I work on several pieces. Since my work is reflecting an internal process, I often need to step away in order to sense how to proceed. I like to use recycled materials in my work and these pieces also contribute to my process. I often find just the right piece on the sidewalk or in an old magazine. My artwork is also influenced by how music affects me, and most often I am singing and dancing as I create, though once in awhile I get very still inside. I enjoy when others relate to my artwork enjoy hearing of their experiences.