Constructing the Intimate

As an artist, I have gradually adapted my sensibilities to recognize the aesthetic essences embodied in the feminine as it pertains to my daily life. This has become my guide, the way I am able to judge images and interpret my own. In my search for content, I explore imagery that I feel best represents my ideas about beauty, desire and a journey. It is not a critique of these elements, but a reflection of fantasy. It is about attraction and femininity, but not perfection. I draw from a composite of imagery which serve as a personal dictionary of signs and symbols, and as a pictorial map of the metaphors I explore. After the painting is finished, these marks become a layered pattern of paint and color, which assert time spent and dialogue explored within the painting. I am then left with a residual curiosity which I can address in the next painting or drawing.

My paintings are directly inspired by pattern, fabric, music, travel, memory and day to day relationships. Layering different washes of paint and using veils of color in conjunction with articulately drawn areas, allows me to discover the painting as it unfolds. I intentionally respond to overabundance and decoration, while intimacy is depicted through gesture and a collage like approach to painting. Texture and patches of color juxtaposed with smooth washy areas of canvas serve as markers of time, memory and emotion. Bringing collage, fabric,linear drawing, paint and pattern together, allows me to build a history of layers which I can then assert or wash away as I construct the composition. Working in this manner gives me the freedom to re-contextualize the information and my experience with it entirely.

Overall, as an artist, I allow myself to act as a filter. What I portray is what I am left with, a collection of color and energy, as well as a recognized glimpse of myself.

Education

Arizona State University MFA studies 2002
Kansas City Art Institute BFA painting/printmaking 1999
Art Center College of Design 1996

Present Group Member of Eye Lounge Gallery, Phoenix, AZ

Exhibitions
3/7/2003 Magnifico Arts, Albuquerque, NM, "Mark My Words: Text in Visual Art"
3/03/2003 MFA Thesis Exhibition, "Constructing the Intimate", Harry Wood Gallery, ASU school of Art
01/2003 Shemer Art Center, Phoenix, AZ
12/2003 Mesa Arts Center, "New Works in Paint", juror John Reyes of A Little More Red
11/2002 Modified Art Gallery in Phoenix, "Conceal & Reveal", A Collection of Paintings
12/2002 Traditional Media, Contemporary forms , juried show at ASU Harry Wood gallery
2002 Fran Riedeman Gallery, Overland Park, KS
2002 Gallery at the Promenade, Naples FL
2002 Arizona State University Harry Wood Gallery, Nathan Cummings Travel exhibition
2002 Java Magazine
2002 Arizona Foothills Magazine, February & September and January issues
2002 Fountain Hills Arizona Community Center exhibition, juried by Ted Decker, John Spiak and Joshua Rose of Shade Magazine
2002 Fran Riedeman Gallery, Overland Park, KS
2001 Art One Gallery, Scottsdale AZ
2001 Arizona Foothills Magazine, September, October, December and January
issues
2001 ASU Harry Wood Gallery, graduate group summer show
2000 Art One Gallery, Scottsdale AZ
1999 Kansas City Art Institute art gallery, graduate exhibition, Best of Show Award, juried by Tim Rollins of KOS in NYC
1999 Horizon Art Gallery, Scottsdale AZ
1999 Mallin and Jacqueline B. Charno Galleries, Kansas City, MO., juried by James Martin, asst. Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art/Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
1999 Poster Gallery, K.C. MO, solo exhibition
1998 Deconstruction of Intimate, Kansas City Art Institute student gallery, three person show
1998 Gestural Conversation, Dodson Technologies, K.C. MO, group show
1998 Horizon Art Gallery, Scottsdale AZ
1993-98 Art One Gallery

Grants and Residencies
June/July 2003 Hungarian Multicultural Residency recipient, Budapest,
Hungary

Private Collection
American Heart Association, AZ
Shemer Art Center, AZ
Arizona Primate Foundation, AZ
Kansas City Art Institute (Purchase Award 1999)
Dodson Technologies, Kansas City, Missouri

Magazines
ART In AMERICA article December, reporting from Arizona, Eye Lounge Gallery
Included Arizona Foothills Magazine, Scottsdale Nationwide publication

Reviews
Arizona Republic, November 8th, 2003, "Blossoming of art spaces exceeds all expectations"