Mixed media collage on board
6” x 6”
sold unmatted and unframed
 
ARTIST STATEMENT
 
My path to the use of acrylic paint with mixed media and creating these abstracted landscapes occurred over years and through many evolutions.  Earlier years were spent making art that reflected what I saw as the pivotal elements of our period, politics, archetypes, and at times the personal. These pieces tended to be brooding and dark.  My work included the use of wax, spray paint, tar, and straw, etc. with oil paint as the basis.
 
 Around the time I entered parenthood, I decided that I wished to put forward a positive disposition for my audience and world. Likely an intuitive  response my new role as a mother, I nevertheless followed this inclination. Over the course of time, this included a move from Brooklyn to the Hudson Valley, N.Y.  I was soon captivated by the landscape of my new environment. 
 
 Initially I viewed the use of acrylic paint as temporary.   Pregnant, I no longer had a separate studio and my concern for the toxicity of my mediums, as well as a shortage of time, seemed to make acrylics a more realistic option. Somewhere along the way, collage, 'stuff' and  acrylics became intertwined. As acrylic paints as a medium improved and their versatility expanded, my curiosity also expanded into new elements, ideas and invented techniques.  I continue to be pulled forward and surprised, challenged and interested in new ways to push this medium.
 
 Each piece hovers between representation and abstraction, pulled one way or the other by the varying textures of the materials and my exploration of process. Within these studio sessions, I am constantly reconciling and melding, exposing through layers a coveted, essential balance.