This body of work is called the Dakota Series. Over the years, I’ve increasingly utilized processes from printmaking in how I approach working in mixed media, particularly relief and intaglio processes. I began working with paint in a similar manner on paper, incising linear elements into the acrylic ground, rubbing pigment into these lines, stamping imagery onto work from relief blocks, working in opaque and transparent, wet and dry layers in order to build up a history of imagery on the picture plane. This process involves working from a mainly divergent approach to art making through automatic drawing (stream of consciousness). I combine drawing, painting (often with fingers), and various printmaking techniques, aimed to generate intimate works which leave behind a visible residue of their process, allowing the viewer to explore the layers of thought and energy. Some of the imagery in my work derives from my love of the unseen world of microscopic imagery. I’ve allowed my research of cellular and molecular biology to influence my art making in order to invent imagery that speaks to our collective memory as organic beings. This imagery is more referential than representative of the actions at the microscopic level. And though I work primarily with organic abstraction through mixed media applications, I also infuse handwritten text into the work. The text gives clues to my observations about my physical and mental environment. All these observations and constructions collectively generate meaning within an abstractly suggested pictorial space.
acrylic, gold leaf, color pencil and china marker, 22 x 30 inches.