ARTIST STATEMENT

ALTERED LANDSCAPES

I am drawn to and fascinated by those media where I can see light shine from within the piece.  Early in my professional career, I translated my love of light, layers, and translucency to nonobjective art … minimalism.  Rather than adding elements, I worked with subtraction, creating a line of light or a line of shadow by tearing into the paper or by pulling out certain threads of the canvas.  I added a minimum of pastel to my drawings, and added layers of natural color painted canvas behind the layer of pulled threads.  The pieces, drawings and paintings alike, conveyed a space beyond or into the surface, literal space not pictorial space.  The paintings were generally quite large and bold and were based on the vertical and horizontal lines and scale of the urban landscape.  The drawings contrasted dramatically to the paintings, as they were small in scale, centered and formal, yet intimately drew the viewer into their quiet reminiscence of mountains, valleys, and meanders.
 

The Altered Landscapes evolved out of the torn pastel drawings, but are more centered and contained by a tight deep mat around the image, often with the image extending beyond the confinement of the mat.  The lines are still created by tearing into the paper, and remain contained within the boundaries of the paper.  Some of the Altered Landscapes are not as minimal as others as white paint was added over the pastel; some take up almost the entire picture plane while others appear to emerge and retreat from the edges.  Even with these additional elements of paint and confinement, these new Altered Landscapes, are far more minimal and abstract than the original series of nearly thirty years ago, yet they still quietly and subtly reflect the land and sky.  Bold, subtle and ethereal, their diversities in small scale intimately engage the viewer.