New Work 2024

For reasons that make sense to me, I have moved the explanation about this year's work to the blog section. 

Can we ever get away from ourselves? I have wondered about this over the years; are our true natures inevitable and unescapable? It has occurred to me that human beings have an inviolable core. I think all of our efforts are meant to help bring us back to this immutable center. We just naturally strive for equilibrium and search for familiarity.  I think it is this core that shows up as the "nature" part of ourselves. And it is the flexibility in either direction due to influence, environment, and upbringing that represents the "nurture" part of the equation. These ideas are at the root of my thinking and are present in my work this year as I begin again.  

For my current work, I have been drawn back to the grid and the idea of quilting. Quilting was where I started with art making. There is a lot of order in quilt making. Blocks get lined up and points are sharp. It's very orderly and it is something that I find comforting. As a challenge to myself, I decided to combine the concept of quilt making with collage work and printmaking. Normally I paint my own collage papers but I wanted to try printing them instead on a gelli plate. Turns out this printing method can be very random. It's hard for me to control the outcome of these prints. I often feel that the best prints are complete surprises.  This diversity in the printing results made me think about the differences (and similarities) among people and brought me back to my original question: can we ever escape ourselves?.

I don't know the answer but it's what I am going to think about this year as I make my work. I want to represent my thoughts and feelings about nature and nurture and the reciprocal and interconnected relationship between the two. I also want to play with the multiple meanings of those two words. To do this, I will use colors, textures, and lines that might evoke natural elements. At the same time, the grid like format will be familiar in its orderly layout. A push and pull between nature, order and randomness. I  hope the viewer will notice squares, rectangles and triangles evoking quilt like patterns while also noticing soothing colors, images, and patterns that evoke ideas of the natural world. For the first time, I am using my sewing machine to stitch the different pieces of paper together. I feel this is a kind of way to represent the fusion of these two themes in a tangible way. As with all of my work,  I hope that the elements I use will suggest a kind of narrative to the viewer, something I haven't thought about but that will be personal for them.

42124: I am continuing to work on this subject and have moved the original post here to make room for more artwork on the 2024 page.
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