I have often tried to write an “artist’s statement.” I tend to have a terrible time doing one that I feel encompasses what I am trying to say. I feel so limited by words, that’s why I create and my journal suffers.

I have looked through much of the art work that I have made and found several reoccurring themes in them. I use an image of some form of myself in almost all of the work that I do. I’m quite certain that makes me a bit narcissistic, but really – who isn’t? I also find that I use leaves in a majority of my work. A few years ago I bought the book House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski and been struggling through it ever since, but I think that it spoke to me somehow. I am uncertain what my fascination with leaves is… but I think it has to do with the way that they morph and change colors (not that I see a lot of that in Florida), or maybe it is the texture of the veins running down the backs of them.

In the summer of 2005, I took a class called “Studio Experiences in Art Education” at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach. After a tumultuous year starting my career as an educator, getting out of a relationship that wasn’t right for me, dealing with the fears of other people who didn’t understand me, and meeting someone who would ultimately inspire me to create artistically again, this was the perfect place for me to explore the themes in my life that were pushing me to make even more intense, deeply personal work than ever before.

I found the theme of running or flight to go through my work. I have spent most of my adult life running or trying to get away from something, my parents, the image that others had of me, marriage and commitment. This is often expressed with feathers and various flying insects. Contradicting this theme is growth and security which often show up with leaves, grass, and rocks, things of the earth. I am a woman of internal conflicts, struggles, and contradictions. My art explores and combines these.