Thursday 3rd of May, 2008- Present

AMERICAN MEDICAL SERIES

This series is a statement to a loved one’s medical treatment and illness.  Though not sentimental, it is an illustration of emotions through anatomical paintings. The illustrations  were a beautiful source, and a  great opportunity to let the details and the subtleties speak. The beautiful blood veins and organs stood out in a perfectly pleasant day.  

Technical, I was reducing my way of painting by using more line and pattern. Lines have always been a very important element in my work. The black markers brought out a diagram quality in the work. The hand written medical terms and directional lines became as much of the  composition as the subject matter.  A visual aid that is ironic because they're mostly unreadable and only health care professionals would be able to decipher their meaning.

The drips of paint and  spray- paint patterns became a structure for the images to break through, and to be a part of.  I use tag sale items and unwanted household kitchen objects to make patterns. Growing up I loved artists who used assemblage  as their way of creating.  As an adult, I feel the days of  Rauschenberg are over.  I want to make a “whole” painting, not a composition  of parts.

PATTERN BUILDS STRUCTURE and repeating pattern has power. The dots are a reference to Lichtenstein but not specificity for that, is to celebrate the difference between the automatic marks and the gestural brush work. 

Lately I’ve been thinking of how line and color can be two separate things. I’ve always thought color informs shape. But now I see it as a totally different way of expression;  an element separate from line.  A  gestural approach with my drawing, but  an analytical  mark with painting Line work, or in my case the drips are the painting aspect, and color can introduce pattern another plane of reality a schism in the dynamic of painting.