Artist's Statement

My artistic concerns have always been the dichotomy of a life lived and the layers of the past as evidenced through memory. I utilize the layered surface and non-traditional materials to explore them.

Written words have a universality to them, not necessarily in their specific meanings, but rather in the beauty of the calligraphic marks themselves. Various languages, varied ways of making marks, all are lovely linear elements.

These communicate ideas, thoughts and feelings which are shared between one or many peoples of differing cultures, religions, and beliefs. Not understood literally by everyone, none the less everyone is able to appreciate their grace.  We communicate or don’t communicate, with language. Language, when written becomes words.

Always with my nose in a book, I have since childhood been actively engaged in reading almost everything I could, including the information found on cereal boxes. I can recall the time when I first knew that the marks on the pages I was turning were recognizable and I knew what they meant. With the excitement I felt, a whole universe opened up to me.

From my first memories of being read to, of being able to read myself, of being surrounded by the Asian art collected by my Mother and Aunt, I have always seen and been aware of line and edges.

Imagine my excitement in discovering visual artists whose linear work engaged me at the same level as the act of reading. They were the artists whose works I could sit in front of, imagine with, be at peace with.

This body of work is a tribute to and an investigation of these kinds of markings. I am hoping to communicate my emotions and sense of interrelatedness one to the other with these works.