writings….

Artist Statements for current and Archived work:

Sentences, 2023-present

In my recent work, I explore the intersection of visual art and language, using the syntax of shapes, textures, and colors.  My last two decades work has been to construct narratives that reflect on themes of cultural identity, capitalism, climate, and human experience. Within this work, I dissamble my original monotypes that delve into these ideas, and reassemble them into visual sentences that hold both individual and collective meaning.

The process of layering these elements is akin to constructing meaning through language—each piece placed to build relationships. In these collaged compositions, I draw on semiotic theory, allowing each form to act as a signifier with multiple interpretations. The original intent from the monotype before it was disassembled gets interwoven with other monotypes, creating deeper meaning from their interaction. My goal is not to force cohesion, but to construct it gradually, reflecting the overwhelming nature of complex ideas, while ultimately revealing new structures of understanding.

Monotypes, 2019-present

This ongoing series draws from my time in Japan, my Dutch heritage, the Dutch Masters, and contemporary techniques like gel plate and silkscreen. Influenced by mid-century women artists, particularly those connected to my Midwestern roots in industrial and furniture design, my work blends contemporary motifs—acid, geometric, high key—with organic shapes and layers. It reflects the identities I hold and have held, engaging with issues like climate change, cultural and racial reckoning, consumerism, and capitalism. Through this, I explore the tension between difficulty and joy, finding beauty and depth in these complexities

Photography: Places on Film ongoing explorations in slowness and depth

For the last twenty five years, I have toted around a 1958 Rollexflex with a 3.5 Tessar Zeiss lens.  Working in film and with a waist level viewfinder creates a slowness and connection to my subject matter, adding a layer of thought and  depth to the work, in contrast to the fast paced nature of my work with digital cameras.   I build on that in my choices of subject matter, exposure and settings and in the choices I make to actually slow down and choose to shoot.  I use it when I travel abroad, and the camera itself is a community builder with strangers approaching, either curious or to share a story surrounding their own memories of Rollei.  In this particular shoot, It was 2021 and swirling deep in the pandemic fallout of anxiety and mental health crisis.  My family and another family went midsummer to a local river to pan for gold, as this particular spot has veins running through it, and the mountains have been searched for the last two centuries.  Always enamored with Sally Mann’s imagery of her children, especially the water imagery, I brought my camera to capture the refraction of water on the children’s gangly limbs.  There is connection in the land and in the water and in the shared experiences of friendship.

Handbags, 2022

What holds value? What gives value? How do we equate value? And how does a whole system assign value—what it inflates, props up in contrast to what it degrades? What signifies true value? Does one value beat out another? And if so, why? How? Currently I am creating a line of haute couture handbag sculptures—vessels that convey everyday life as well as status, wealth, position. Choosing specific “It” bags from various eras and design houses, I recreate them as sculptural forms with the humble elements of cardboard, newspaper, mache, and acrylic paint. Value is created using the modest medium of mache through time consuming labor of recreation, interplaying with the idea of scarcity– a tool used by the fashion industry and art world to signify value.  I consider this work feminist in endeavor, engaging with roles culture has created for women.  Fashion can be an elitist, sexist endeavor, but also a place for endless exploration of craft, artistry and creativity.  Also mixed up in metaphor, culture and meaning, these pieces work as signifiers for women’s bodies, valued for being pleasing to the eye or as vessels for containment of others.  I chose this media from the realm of craft, placing focus on women’s work and acknowledgment of teacher as practitioner in fine art, both maligned in traditional art realms.  Elevating fashion, craft, women’s bodies to realms long dominated by patriarchal systems, the work is also playful, fun, yummy—in both process and product—and borderline absurd in endeavor.  It has allowed me time to live in questions, engage with identities and roles I’ve held and continue to hold, and revel in the fun of creating.