Nine Lives Painting

My paintings are inspired by nature and usually incorporate personal imagery and marks, often taken from the sketchbook/journals that I bring with me on my treks into the trails near my home/studio. I fill these journals with my impressions... drawings, descriptions, unintended markings, ephemera found along the way, as well as bits of thought, music or poetry that I encounter during my day. The more autobiographical elements become part of the paintings I call "Narratives", while others add depth and texture to my more minimal, landscape-based abstraction works. The mountain trails and vistas, flowing rivers, dramatic skies, open prairie lands, canyons, and tumultuous weather that I experience now, as well as my memories of living in the high desert of New Mexico and growing up near the sea, all inspire me, in both series' of work. A recent move to a less rural area has led to explorations of urban textures, colors and shapes as inspirations in my work, too. I use oil paint, cold wax medium, found materials and a variety of media such as natural pigments, ink, acrylic, graphite, oil stick and charcoal in my work. Recently I've returned to incorporating collage and drawing into my work and I'm excited about the results.