Four Series

The Benediction Series - The series depicts a transition using metaphors for the boundaries between humanity and the awareness of personal possibilities through self-acceptance. (pieces 1, 2, and 3)

The Sacred Blessing Series - Using age as a symbol for time and its effects on the human visage, the second body of work is based on the Sacred Gift series where the figure becomes a part of nature. This is humanity’s statement of integration and cherishing our context, our environment. (pieces 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9)

The Biomorpia Series - This evolving group of drawings explores the preciousness within the natural world. Often the apparent repeated patterns in nature allow assumptions, named, and generalized, we do not appreciate the startling variety in color, texture, and forms that offer a unique, transcendent experience. Meandering through the patterns, like a creature from another existence, there is wonder. (pieces 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14,)

The Mandalas - The Biomorphic series inspired consideration of sacred geometry, drawing patterns that come from the imagination and gradually deconstruct the material objective images into an impression from the unconscious. With acknowledgement of Dr. Patricia Elwood’s Spontaneous Drawing presentation on Soul at Play, the practice of daily mark making derived from the senses, yet still contained within the mandala grid, encourage the release of the figurative imagery into something personally genuine. (15)

Essay

The combination of art and teaching are intrinsic to my art, and the work is intended to create a thoughtful exploration of our connection to everything around us. We are open systems. At the core of this connection in my own case is a life experience influenced by a father who lived through birds and nature and a traditional mother who took charge of her life and evolved into a psychotherapist with a rich spiritual aspect that has become an emblem for integration in my work.

I began taking lessons at the Art Institute of Chicago at seven. There was an entire room devoted to the work of Ivan Albright. These dark and sometimes horrific images made an impression. As an artist I find myself employing the obsessive detail distinctive to Albright’s paintings. I see that in the deepest level of life there is a link, a connection to everything.

Call it cellular, microscopic, or atomic, we are all an aspect of the same particles, mutually interdependent.

My college education started at Southern Illinois University where, in response to my whining about a lack of funds for art supplies, an instructor suggested cheap ballpoint pens. This began my immersion with the pointed drawing tool. After a time at the College of DuPage, where I had some excellent instruction and their encouragement to transfer to Pratt Institute in New York, I finished my BFA and began freelance illustrating.

Life, family, and a venture into the health field have impacted my work. I consider my visual communication as incorporation of all these aspects of the journey. My husband of forty-eight years is a potter. Our two children are entrepreneurs and very creative in their own lives. My exploration took the trail to an MFA program at Northern Illinois University where I had the great fortune to study with amazing teachers who consistently challenged and pushed.

I have been teaching drawing at Northern Illinois University for twenty-two years and before that taught health and wellness at North Central College for twelve years. Teaching has been an incredible gift of learning.

I am grateful for every moment in the classroom where I watch students’ skill and critical thinking develop.

There have been many significant motivators that helped me through the struggle to explore and achieve. As the work evolves so has its intention. I see narratives, stories that may offer life lessons. I see appreciation for the gifts of the capacity to think and express creatively. I offer empowerment to my students through the rigors of taking on the discipline of art-making that can inspire and enhance life experiences.

The repeated mantra is “I’m still learning”.

The work in Soul Digging is not passive. It is intended to stimulate a conversation, perhaps confrontational in the thinking behind the meaning yet beautiful in technique. I am compelled by depicting a depth of reality that reflects the perceptual truth of the object, person, and context. It is a hyper-reality of illuminated texture. The question I am asked the most often is “how long does it take you?”

I think that my vision came from trying to see the stuff around me. I’ve always worn glasses and need to get close to see the surface details.

Work that comes from the heart and gut, an authentic expression, can only come from the core of an experience, tradition, and moment specific to the individual artist and his/her effort.

I celebrate the accomplishments of others. It gives hope that I might produce something of the caliber that inspires.

My advice to others is to work from your own point of view and your own story. Collect images and objects that stimulate your thinking. Wonder always. Look down. Do not wait for inspiration to work. Making art is like training for a marathon. The practice can be grueling, but the outcome is empowering and is based on discipline. You must carve out the time. Keep a sketchbook. Surround yourself with people who can ask questions. Establish an art group for critiques and sharing ideas.