I graduated from Rhode Island School of Design, where I worked primarily with acrylic, oil, and printmaking. However, the collage medium became my passion and has been the main focus of my work as an artist for 56 years.
I live in the woods of Northern Minnesota where the connection between, humans, animals, and wilderness is important to me and essential to the spirit of my visual art. Collage is an associative, nonlinear mode of creating. It can tell a story by incorporating shapes, symbolism, and images without being bound by the need to make a realistic illustration. I approach the collage medium as a painting not as an assembly of images. The painterly quality of my work is dissimilar from the common notions about collage work. I use hand-cut pieces, paper, transfer images, rubbings, airbrush, gouache, gold leaf, pastel, and acrylics.
These six paintings are from the Reminiscence, Resiliency, and Renewal series. The series uses images from nature to focus on and embrace the human experience and the inspirational routes navigated during this difficult challenging period. The pandemic forced the world to face and find ways to overcome isolation and loss. The pandemic also reminded us of our ephemeral condition.
Each person had time to reflect not only on survival but the things that matter the most in their lives. This meant introspection, contemplation, and recollection of all that was neglected, overlooked, and rediscovered. Art and culture can be a positive reinforcement and provide a way to deal with and express difficulties as well as strength, hope, and triumph.