Vista Perspectives, Cape Cod National Seashore Print

I began my art career as as an undergraduate student who needed to be innovative in order to feed my art making passion. Too broke to purchase commercially made paper, I hooked up a garbage disposal in a room adjacent to the printmaking studio-pre OCEA, it was the 1980’s after all-and used it to grind scraps of discarded paper into soggy pulp. At first I formed the pulp back into some resemblance of paper, but eventually I began using different colored pulps as the painting medium itself. In this way, I took a material that had been intended to be the recipient of media and flipped it into the media, and became a pioneer of sorts in the experimental journey. And what did I use as my paintbrush?: plastic spoons and turkey basters of course. With these simple tools I learned to distribute the pulp across the surface of the canvas in an attempt to recreate the subject matter that most intrigued me: our emotional pull toward natural environments. From roiling seascapes and natural landscapes to blooming gardens and iridescent abstract forms, I found a way to express my desire to explore these places using lumpy pulp, turkey basters and plastic spoons. In doing so, I was embarking on the adventure of a lifetime. Many years have passed since those early days, but I still find myself intrigued by this expressive medium will all its perks and challenges. I am still discovering the many twists and turns on this journey, a road that started with a garbage disposal and someone else’s discarded paper.