Lichens are amazing organisms. They are all around us and we hardly notice them. Found on soil, tree bark, rocks and even some under water, they are actually two organisms living together (symbiosis). These complex organisms can inhabit many conditions and substrates that would deter other kinds of species. I am fascinated with their resilience and beauty. Many of these paintings are done on sliced wood substrates, the closest thing to their original habitat.

Tree Memories is an exploration of the history of trees that have personal meaning to me. Some are from my father’s cherry trees, some from my own ancient copper breech tree. The prints from these trees are more than about their age, but about the history that has passed in their midst. I print them on rice paper, embed them in encaustic medium, and mount them on birch panel, all ties to the earth.

My love of construction and composition, texture and ancient medium leads me to explore mosaic art. With a nod to the traditional style of Revenna Italy's masters, I have adapted the process to work with tiles I have created with encaustic medium, pigment and eggshells. Shapes, color and texture are ever evolving. What began as traditional process, has taken another turn away from tradition by incorporating sliced cherry wood, or mosaics as part of collage and encaustic paintings.

In the kitchen, slicing a grapefruit, I saw the most wondrous organic patterns and colors. I could not look away. I began photographing them and creating prints on a variety of different surfaces (a variety of paper, limestone, transfer on encaustic, transparency plastic and silk. The silk created a translucency that none of the other approaches provided. The creation of the artwork is a meditation on the simplest of food preparation tasks and the noticing that comes with being fully present.

Hand-painted paper collage of weathered American buildings

Inspired by the Blue Headed Motmot from the rainforests of Costa Rica, this series is a celebration of birds, of natural life, of all life living freely and in harmony.
On the last trip I took before the Covid-19 pandemic, I had the great fortune to visit a nature preserve and meet a bird whisperer named Giovanni who could call birds, uncover wondrous frogs, and spot sloths high up in the canopy. Ten percent of all sales from this series go to support his sanctuary, which has lost all income due to the pandemic.

The Industrial Village series comes out of a fascination with miniature buildings and time-worn facades, influenced by artists such as Joseph Cornell, Carol Blackwell, and Joe Landry, and driven by the extraordinary amount of packaging that I accumulated during the height of COVID-19. I decided to create fantasy structures that use tea tins, empty cardboard spools, old marbles, and so much more.