Altars

I work with bold colors of paint, gold leaf, glass, and found objects to explore the spiritual realm of our lives. It is important to me to communicate my visions and I use familiar symbolism derived from both the Old and the New Testaments of the Bible to express my ideas.

The work included in the Altars series honors experiences that represent turning points in my life. In the Old Testament, people on a journey gathered stones to commemorate gaining wisdom or to represent spiritual events connected with a particular location or point on their journey. The pieces of glass and found objects represent my gathering of stones to offer tribute and acknowledgement for points of growth. The shiny objects of glass and gold leaf represent experiences much like the alchemist’s fire, where dross is turned into gold.
When my work takes on the form of an altar, it pays homage to the spiritual within the midst of the temporal aspects of our lives.

Paper Quilts

The series Paper Quilts visually depicts biblical verses and ideas in a symbolic style. The concept behind the quilt format of the paintings and pottery is that a quilt is an item that is made up of smaller pieces put together to make a larger whole. Likewise, the individual Bible stories and ideas are put together to form a larger truth.

Soul Support

My series Soul Support expresses the idea that each of us has people, experiences, books, movies, plays, and art that have made us who we are today. We look at each other yet can't discern these influences from the outside. This series depicts what we might look like if, through special eyes, we could see the myriad of influences that have shaped each of us and contributed to who we are.

Rebirth

This series expresses the idea that we continually pass from one stage into another. As a gray caterpillar builds a cocoon and later emerges as a colorful butterfly, our humble and difficult times are what later form us into something stronger than what we were.

From The Ashes

This series depicts the idea that when the dross of our life meets the refining fire, then becomes the alchemist's gold. The figures in this series are raku fired, which is a firing technique using the shock of heat and water to form a shiny, metallic surface on the clay. In our lives, when we survive the fire, we then can rise like a phoenix from the ashes. My "Capella" pieces within this series mean "small altars" and they echo altars found recessed into stone walls in villages in European Catholic countries. In Europe, these capellas contain a statue of a saint or the Virgin Mary or Jesus. Catholic believers put flowers in front of them and genuflex as they pass by. To me they were reminders of the spiritual in the midst of everyday life. My capellas, with angel-like figures emerging from petals, signify the quiet unfolding of a person's spirit as his or her eyes are opened to new light.