Artist's Statement

Artist's Statements

Floating World

The initial inspiration for my current paintings and pastels came from looking at the graphic quality and sense of space in Japanese prints from the Edo period.

This Asian influence evolved into personal symbols referencing my double life of living and working in two cities, Memphis and New York. The imagery is derived from architecture, puzzle pieces, flags, spheres, and warning signs associated with waterways.

Memphis blues and soul music play into my gestures as do the sounds of improvisational jazz. Both cities' lights, signs, and energy provide the pulse for the lines, colors, and shapes in the work.

I am attempting to connect my experience of living in both places. It is a yearning to create a fluid sense of home in a Floating World.

—June 2009

I think of the works I'm doing now as butterflies and tornadoes—two opposing faces, freedom and vulnerability. I see all my work as a kind of choreography of improvisation.

—2004

My recent paintings and drawings began as a response to a recent fire in my life. This dramatic event brought back haunting memories of my childhood home burning. Half a world away, other fires—explosions, car bombings, gunfire—destroy lives, as the war in Iraq continues. In these paintings, I explore the nature of fire, how its energy is destructive, but also transformative, purifying, and emotionally evocative.

—October 2004

I rely on an intuitive approach to painting and drawing. My work is an emotional and symbolic response to the figurative structures I find in real and imagined worlds. I want to be charged with the sound and energy I experience throughout nature. I like the notion of X-ray vision, peeling away the layers to see inside, trying to get to the essence. Recently, much of the imagery has been inspired from traveling in Vietnam and Cuba.

—August 2003