Gaia Print

I started college in 1972 studying marketing/business. In my second year I had taken a art history class as a needed humanities credits with a focus on modern art. I was in class one day watching a contemporary bio video of Claus Oldenburg and his work. I swear as if hit by lightning, I knew what I was and wanted out of my life; to be an artist and create new and innovative works of art. I finished the two year business program, then applied and was accepted to a four year under graduate program in art which I completed my BFA degree at Colorado State Univ.. Later I was accepted to the MFA program at the University of California Santa Barbara. The year was 1988 when my first “hybrid” painting/sculpture series emerged in both concept and use of materials. This series of art pieces reflected a particular dance movement. The finished sculpture resembled a William DeKooning woman raised from the flat plane into real space. Beginning in 2010, my desire to continue exploring dimensional relief gave rise to my current body of work that is a combination of many years of exploration in visual composing merging concept and materials in unique ways. Here the flat plane of portrait, depicting the elegance of the female form, is set within a 3-dimensional relief – where portrait once again gives way to real space. These “Hybrid” paintings represent a contemporary approach to traditional painting.