Work: Artist Statement

I have been exploring portraiture and symbols for many years in my artworks. I love to simplify the highlights and shadows I see into basic organic shapes. My favorite geometric shape is a circle, so you will see it everywhere in my work.

Over the years, I have simplified what I see using Adobe Illustrator, acrylic paint, silkscreen, pencil, and pen. The portraiture works I have chosen to show here are those in which I have looked at the ways that light hits the forms on faces and I have simplified those shapes and colors to show the essence of what someone looks like. I also incorporate large patterns in my work that show a contrast between positive and negative space in the background. I use limited color schemes and I see working in those confines as a challenge, which I enjoy immensely. I have also begun stitching onto my canvases. I have no formal training in embroidery, but I think of it as more like drawing or doodling with thread to add another layer of meaning and interest. My symbolic artworks show my growing lexicon of the symbols and images I am using and want to use in my artworks. I feel like the digital artworks are somewhere in between the two other art forms.