Below, you can hear me in conversation with curator Mark Scala at the Frist Center for Visual Arts.  We are discussing an artwork for the Chuck Close Prints exhibition audio tour.  

Our talk begins at 35:44.

My studio is located at 30 Cutler Mills in Warren, RI.

My body stores fragmented memories. It remembers fear and sorrow by manifesting pain and illness. It has labored over both life and death. My body recognizes home in the smell of my children’s hair. My body makes art as a way of feeling and trusting what it can do.

I often work on paintings for years, and sometimes the “original” work seems to be entirely gone. However, that beginning is still present and can be read in each successive development. When I practice new methods of exploration and the context of my life alters, the paintings become more specific and enriched. As I age, I more fully understand that all of my work is related to how my mind and body adjusts to trauma.

My paintings are heavily influenced by the physicality and Sublime found in Abstract Expressionism, and I deeply relate to the storytelling found in Impressionism and Post-Impressionism.      

Abstraction has felt so natural to the way my brain organizes information.  It can strip away the literal and expose a more complex, sometimes more chaotic, narration. Abstraction exists as a felt sense in my body and my mind is free to work as if piecing together a puzzle. I am not a linear thinker.  With abstraction, I create a place to experience my own beauty and fears.      

I love to teach.

I have experience teaching art to all ages and in a variety of institutions.  I also have experience as the Director of Education for the AIR program at K12 Gallery in Dayton, OH.  My objective is to create an atmosphere for learning that is both challenging and engaging.  Students are supported in artistic problem solving through the development of skills in a chosen medium, art criticism, and an understanding of art historical and contemporary context.  I believe class content should be fluid and embrace a particular group's learning styles, interests, and goals.

resides: Barrington, Rhode Island

born: Cincinnati, Ohio

MFA . painting. Clemson University 

CV provided upon request.