My work varies a great deal. But underlying it all are a handful of preoccupations -- layers, the elasticity of time, considerations of place and self, reflections and transparency, and the connections between earth and air and our place in it all. I like storytelling and developing ideas over many months. After twenty years of drawing and painting, my mediums had a growth spurt and now include video, puppetry, text, sculpture, photography and games. I allow my imagination and subject matter to dictate materials and the final format of each exhibition. Whatever the final work, its intent is to be experiential and thought provoking.
I also write. If you want to check out my writing, do so here.
INSTALLATIONS
PLACES
Created as a site-specific installation for Westminster College’s “Window Gallery” in Salt Lake City, Utah, PLACES tells a story about existing in many places at one time. Covering two, 450-foot floors, the story’s characters are hand-sewn puppets, averaging 7 feet in height and/or wingspan. Layering, transparency and reflection are important aspects of the installation, with carefully consideration taken of trees, sky and houses reflected in the glass. The show ran for four months, day and night.
MAKING TALES
Like Alice in Wonderland, this installation drops into the rabbit hole of a world from a small girl’s point of view. The child’s wanderings, meanderings and silliness reveal that before knowing fairytale s such as Cinderella or Little Red Riding Hood, the world is filled with wonder and limitlessness. It is a time before the influence of gender expectation, prejudice and judgments. Created at the time of and with awareness of Kiki Smith’s installation “Telling Tales,” about fairytales from a feminist perspective, MAKING TALES -- the video, photographic wall (9’ x 15’) and sculptural pieces -- exhibited in Gallery One of the 80 Washington Square Gallery in New York City.
PIPPI IN WONDERLAND
“Transplaced” to Utah after nearly 20 years in NYC, this drawing series was a vehicle for understanding new landscapes (shopping malls, McMansions, big box stores, SUVs and ultimately the grabbing of space and natural resources and the call to battle to protect these possessions. A Pippi Longstocking trickster/marionette was handcrafted to be a guide to understanding “America.” She is her own Pippi, faceless but wearing a golden, brown-skinned mask. Each drawing is approximately 3.5’x 7’ on vellum or denril with mixed medium. They were originally created for the Sundance Film Festival to be shown in the Musician’s Room during the Film Festival in Park City, Utah. They have shown in other galleries as well.
I’LL NEVER BE SO FAR AWAY
Sequester in the studio over a nine month period after my mother’s death, I worked solely on these drawings and supporting writings, restricting the size of the drawings. Each is 17 inches square. The materials are non-archival. Some images and words will disappear with time as do the thoughts and emotions around loss. The installation includes over 200 drawings, each numbered, installed in sequence and hung so viewers may walk within them,. The piece was first exhibited at the Salt Lake Art Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, as part of a show entitled, “Transcendence.”
LANGUAGE
In a 2,000 square foot, warehouse gallery, The Artspace Forum Gallery, n Salt Lake City, Utah, this exhibition explored language from many angles. It included some 100 works of paintings, photographs, a puppet, drawings, sculpture, a game in line/language communication, and a video in three languages.
SHROUD
Grief is a feeling everyone encounters but how it is shared, acknowledged, or even suppressed is as individual as a snowflake. This installation brings together the voices of many people, each of whom has lost one or more family members, from grandparents to children. By placing the voices together on separate monitors running continuously and simultaneously, a chorus is created and out of that a community of commonality. Ironically the cries of sadness, vulnerability and pain open a view to the profound and abiding capacity of people to love deeply. Commissioned by Brolley Arts, an arts organization in Salt Lake City, Utah, SHROUD was first presented as part of a group show at Westminster College, Salt Lake City. It later was expanded and traveled to the Central Utah Art Center in Ephraim, Utah. The installation was created to responds to the community where it is exhibited by incorporating interviews with people from that community. This enables the piece to represent the local religious and cultural beliefs around dying and grieving.
OFF THE PAGE
Writing a novel involves a create process similar to creating a painting or drawing or puppet, but it can be more intricate. After spending two years writing a book, I worked on an installation that mimics the process. Using old drafts laid out on a grid, scraps, notes, strings, and drawings, I visually reconstruct the movement from the subconscious to the conscious mind, from chaos to order. Designed to wallpaper a small room from floor to ceiling, the installation creates an immersive environment that includes a video and a table where I sit, day after day, for the length of the exhibit, and write with others who are welcomed into the space. This installation has not yet been exhibited.
WHERE:ABOUT, DIS:PLACE, SPEAK TO ME, BLACK FLOWER STORIES
This collection of mixed medium works are all part of a journey to understand place, displacement and the consequences of lost identity in a new country. Beginning with elation and hope, the series has now taken me to stories found in black flowers.
45
45 consists of 22 drawings and paintings that observe shifting thoughts over time. They reflect the process of making them, like meditation, watching the mind move from the profound to the absurd with a lot of chatter in between.
I also write. If you want to check out my writing, do so here.
INSTALLATIONS
PLACES
Created as a site-specific installation for Westminster College’s “Window Gallery” in Salt Lake City, Utah, PLACES tells a story about existing in many places at one time. Covering two, 450-foot floors, the story’s characters are hand-sewn puppets, averaging 7 feet in height and/or wingspan. Layering, transparency and reflection are important aspects of the installation, with carefully consideration taken of trees, sky and houses reflected in the glass. The show ran for four months, day and night.
MAKING TALES
Like Alice in Wonderland, this installation drops into the rabbit hole of a world from a small girl’s point of view. The child’s wanderings, meanderings and silliness reveal that before knowing fairytale s such as Cinderella or Little Red Riding Hood, the world is filled with wonder and limitlessness. It is a time before the influence of gender expectation, prejudice and judgments. Created at the time of and with awareness of Kiki Smith’s installation “Telling Tales,” about fairytales from a feminist perspective, MAKING TALES -- the video, photographic wall (9’ x 15’) and sculptural pieces -- exhibited in Gallery One of the 80 Washington Square Gallery in New York City.
PIPPI IN WONDERLAND
“Transplaced” to Utah after nearly 20 years in NYC, this drawing series was a vehicle for understanding new landscapes (shopping malls, McMansions, big box stores, SUVs and ultimately the grabbing of space and natural resources and the call to battle to protect these possessions. A Pippi Longstocking trickster/marionette was handcrafted to be a guide to understanding “America.” She is her own Pippi, faceless but wearing a golden, brown-skinned mask. Each drawing is approximately 3.5’x 7’ on vellum or denril with mixed medium. They were originally created for the Sundance Film Festival to be shown in the Musician’s Room during the Film Festival in Park City, Utah. They have shown in other galleries as well.
I’LL NEVER BE SO FAR AWAY
Sequester in the studio over a nine month period after my mother’s death, I worked solely on these drawings and supporting writings, restricting the size of the drawings. Each is 17 inches square. The materials are non-archival. Some images and words will disappear with time as do the thoughts and emotions around loss. The installation includes over 200 drawings, each numbered, installed in sequence and hung so viewers may walk within them,. The piece was first exhibited at the Salt Lake Art Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, as part of a show entitled, “Transcendence.”
LANGUAGE
In a 2,000 square foot, warehouse gallery, The Artspace Forum Gallery, n Salt Lake City, Utah, this exhibition explored language from many angles. It included some 100 works of paintings, photographs, a puppet, drawings, sculpture, a game in line/language communication, and a video in three languages.
SHROUD
Grief is a feeling everyone encounters but how it is shared, acknowledged, or even suppressed is as individual as a snowflake. This installation brings together the voices of many people, each of whom has lost one or more family members, from grandparents to children. By placing the voices together on separate monitors running continuously and simultaneously, a chorus is created and out of that a community of commonality. Ironically the cries of sadness, vulnerability and pain open a view to the profound and abiding capacity of people to love deeply. Commissioned by Brolley Arts, an arts organization in Salt Lake City, Utah, SHROUD was first presented as part of a group show at Westminster College, Salt Lake City. It later was expanded and traveled to the Central Utah Art Center in Ephraim, Utah. The installation was created to responds to the community where it is exhibited by incorporating interviews with people from that community. This enables the piece to represent the local religious and cultural beliefs around dying and grieving.
OFF THE PAGE
Writing a novel involves a create process similar to creating a painting or drawing or puppet, but it can be more intricate. After spending two years writing a book, I worked on an installation that mimics the process. Using old drafts laid out on a grid, scraps, notes, strings, and drawings, I visually reconstruct the movement from the subconscious to the conscious mind, from chaos to order. Designed to wallpaper a small room from floor to ceiling, the installation creates an immersive environment that includes a video and a table where I sit, day after day, for the length of the exhibit, and write with others who are welcomed into the space. This installation has not yet been exhibited.
WHERE:ABOUT, DIS:PLACE, SPEAK TO ME, BLACK FLOWER STORIES
This collection of mixed medium works are all part of a journey to understand place, displacement and the consequences of lost identity in a new country. Beginning with elation and hope, the series has now taken me to stories found in black flowers.
45
45 consists of 22 drawings and paintings that observe shifting thoughts over time. They reflect the process of making them, like meditation, watching the mind move from the profound to the absurd with a lot of chatter in between.