My art started as a way to process my inner life. A way to make conscious what was hiding in the recesses of my unconscious, the dark shadow parts as well as my true nature. I allow my intuition to guide the art process, through a deep listening, while inviting the inner parts to engage in dialogue. I concentrate on bringing a quality of attention to some impressive dream sequence, and allow it to enter my breath and body, and become image. Some of the artwork emerges during a C.G. Jungian inspired Active Imagination and Authentic Movement experience, allowing the movement to happen, as inner parts speak, move, and ask to be seen in visual form. The artwork can arise after a vivid mediation sitting, or after a Body-Mind Centering exploration of inner body states, or just as well during an enlivening Movement or Theater Improvisation.
Each piece slowly unfolds, circling the veils between reality and the imaginary realms, with a playful logic that unifies, and yet feels authentic. The themes that arrive are often about identity, diversity, relationships, animal extinction, climate change, nature, new perspectives, struggle and resolution. Some paintings are fairly literal, others more abstract - dependent on the inner world I enter. The images range from whimsical and playful, calm or meditative or full of conflict. A single piece can have a weaving of references: personal and collective, memory, rituals, body impressions, landscapes, present moment, past and future.
The story paintings juxtapose people from various cultures and races, interacting with each other, spiritual beings, and imaginary animal like creatures. The images draw from a variety of cultural traditions, mythologies and religious backgrounds, surfacing from the personal experience of traveling, teaching and working with diverse populations of people, as well as my individual cultural background. My intention as an artist is to invite you to be curious, to move into a space of your own imagination, and speculate about what the artwork inspires in you.