CREATIVE VISION
“The purest and most thoughtful minds are those which love color the most.”
– John Ruskin, from The Stones of Venice, as quoted in The Secret Lives of Color, by Kassia St. Clair
Like Ruskin, color makes my heart sing. While water shapes the notes, color is the opera. When I bring the two together, I wait for that alchemical reaction, a mysterious concert. It is all fluid, unpredictable. At the beginning, it goes where it wants to go. Sometimes there is great beauty, sometimes a holy mess. But always the blending of these powerful elements of water and earth brings me great joy and drives my creative process.
As a Kentucky woman who now calls California home, I too am a blend, one of West Coast optimism and openness and Kentucky tradition and tales. This strange cocktail gives me many ideas and stories to share in my paintings for, ultimately, I think of myself as a storyteller.
I bring a curious mind to my painted stories. I paint what I want the world to be. I paint with strong color, strong shapes, strong composition. Sometimes I add bits of paper, fabric and other fun stuff to build an even more organic painting.
I frequently paint the stories of our time. I care deeply about issues that challenge our world. Climate crisis is a theme that appears in many of my paintings. I paint the beauty to be found in Nature, pulling from scenes in Kentucky, California, and from my many travels with my supportive husband, Ralph. A life-long feminist, I care about women’s issues, environmental, racial, and social justice and these too appear frequently in my paintings.
Pigment from the earth, water, painterly tools and stories to tell. Together they allow me to make my “pure and thoughtful mind” sing.
