ABOUT

ART DESCRIPTION

The inspiration for my art is everyday experience including the fact that I am an accidental immigrant, originally from New Zealand, now living in Portland, Oregon. 

I have discovered that being an immigrant puts you in a sort of limbo.
I think my art reflects that. There is always some sort of mash up; large bold shapes and tiny scribbly lines, blocks of dominant color and specks of contrast, clean edges and smudged overlays. It’s as though I am positive about some of the elements but others are mere educated guesses. This creates a level of tension, perhaps even, confusion. Hopefully it also makes the work more interesting because things are not exactly as they first appear.

ART TECHNIQUE

I am a self-taught artist working in a variety of mediums; acrylic paint, textile collage, wax pencil, wax pastel, ink and graphite, to name a few.

Color, shapes, texture and movement drive my process. Paint and ink is usually poured straight from the bottle or applied with big fat house painting brushes, or rags. Many layers ensue and then I spend lots of time scraping and wiping things off again with sharp objects to get to what’s underneath. Top layer marks and elements are often created using very fine ink pens or wax pastels and pencils or graphite pencils. Tape and vinyl is used for clean edged elements.