Behind Hydrothermal Eyes

October 14, 2020

Hydrothermal Eyes, 16” x 20”, acrylic on panel, 2018.

The title points to geological features and human emotions and asks the viewer to consider the similarities between them. Hydrothermal-like ripples encircle kelp forests and bioluminescent organisms exhibit aquatic wonder in the painting. Layers of subjects like tracheid cells, species camouflage, and the cosmos also inspire the artwork. Humans communicate extreme emotions with the eye in the same way as the hydrothermal temperatures exhibit extreme geological features. The constellation of subjects reveals interrelationships and connections between the small to large in our world. I compose at macro and micro levels and the scale of the subject moves from aerial to microscopic. I have a fascination in depicting these different scales and perspectives in the same composition.

I enjoy the potential metaphors in the hydrothermal hot spring features I saw at Yellowstone National Park. I chose this subject because of the depth of beauty in the colors but also the contrast that it is dangerous to humans to touch. The natural phenomenon of the heated water below the earth’s crust is an extreme environment in our world. There are trillions of microorganisms called extremophiles that make up the rings of vivid colors in these features. These creatures live within extreme conditions and are an unexpected metaphor. I like that it can be abstract on a first glance but also reference something that is somewhat recognizable. That mystery is compelling to create and explore in my paintings. The Burnt Umber webbing form in the lower right was inspired by looking at images of tracheids cells in plants.

Recurring Motifs- Tracheids

September 30, 2020

Moon Pollinators

Buried Treasure

Today

Sprout

Hieroglyph Getaway

Siren Song

Bloom

Hydrothermal Eyes

Low Tide

There are some patterns or motifs that I have been repeating in my work for as long as I can remember. For example in Moon Pollinators the webbing pattern is repeated twice in this detail of the painting as a large structure in light ultramarine blue and then as a small pattern in light violet. Looking at images of tracheid cells in plants originally inspired the motif and you can see it repeated in many of my paintings. It has become part of my visual vocabulary as an artist. Similar to the trachea in the human body, the tracheids transport and distribute important elements like water and salts to all the different parts of the plant. It’s how the plants breathe and live. At first, my heart responded with joy in viewing the tracheids intricate patterns and magnificent color variations. Next I was further drawn to its function as a vessel. I find the subject of a vessel is rich with poetic metaphor and creates content or meaning in the painting. The tracheid pattern draws attention to the subject and is further transformed through the process of painting. I see this pattern in my work like a vessel that holds and transports our vital life essence and also creates a road map for experience as humans.

Thoughts on my color palette

August 31, 2020

I wanted to describe the reasoning for how and why I choose the colors in my paintings. It’s a very exciting and complex subject and one that I am very passionate about as a painter. I often work with highly saturated colors and many of the details work uses various values within each color. I have preferences for jewel tones and there is usually an abundance of deep blues in my work. Working with these colors brings the most energy, joy, and wonder to my painting process. There are color similarities and color stories for each series of work that I create.

While my work sources nature, I don’t use many neutrals or what most would consider natural colors of brown, green, and beige. However, the colors I use are selections from unseen nature. For example, images taken with microscopes or telescopes are often altered with staining or embellishing. This practice enables the viewer to see and experience the images more clearly. When selecting my color palette, I have these same ideas in mind. Microscopic image alteration is not really standardized so you will see a lot of variation when comparing different source images of the same subject. The microscope, camera, and even a printer produce a lot of variations of the same subject. I often have scientific images around me in the studio while I’m working. Since I’m doing so much inventing with shape, I really take a lot of liberty with color to use my own voice within the subject.

Color is a way to adding my own content and emotion that is personal, poetic, and compelling. The colors create candy colored vivid environments and fantastical dreamy elements that demand attention. The colors do not sit idly by. I think of the colors create centerpieces or focal points. In visiting a garden or going on a walk, I am often drawn to the brightest flowers as they have a tendency to bring attention to themselves and delight my senses. I select the colors in my palette in the same way as I experience color in nature. Colorful flowers standout and have contrast from fields of green grass that they grow out of. I’m drawn to the beauty in color but it’s also all of the magnificent variations that are possible. Color can convey emotions in how the light subtly changes while watching a sunset. Careful observations gives opportunities to slow down and appreciate what is around us.

I use a lot of aquatic colors like blues, magentas, and yellow-oranges that are often derived from thinking about coral reefs. I like to imagine I’m there enjoying the visual theater in the depths of the ocean or in the shallow waters of a tide pool. Watching the rainfall, looking forward to sunsets, thinking about memories of flowers are some of the subjects holding my attention lately. Colors can have different temperatures that might be bluer or lean more towards yellow. Temperature is an exciting technique to utilize in painting as it can create a rhythm in the mood of the composition. What are the colors of twilight versus the colors of daylight? They have a completely different feel and tone. I have been thinking about the temperature of 1970s photos, as they tend to have an overabundance of sun kissed golds and rusty oranges. The new LED lightbulbs have this intense blue light that is a bit garish on an environment like that in my neighbors new outdoor light that is almost blinding.

What about this idea of the psychedelic color or mesmerizing color combined with lines and shapes that compose rhythmic patterns? Color can change our perception and alter our mood. The color in our surroundings interacts with our internal psyche. The colors of the pandemic might have certain characteristics as well. What are pandemic colors? It’s hard to think about that right now. We’re in the dog days of summer now and the pandemic is far from over. The colors are all around us. II appreciate the subtle variations of colors and light even more during this isolation.

Moments of Zen- Musical Inspirations

July 28, 2020

I know that I’m really in the painting zone when I want to listen to the same song on repeat over and over again for an hour or more. I think the emotion that the song provides really strikes a cord. I want to stay present in that moment. I always want to get to that place where I feel a place of refuge. “Death With Dignity” by Sufjan Stevens was one of those songs that I started to listen to when I was making my mural a “A Kaleidoscope of Hidden Worlds” 3 years ago. That song represents a lot for me in overcoming challenging obstacles. Beginning when you don’t how to begin or where to start and when you think you can’t do it. The fear can enable momentum on its own and new channels of strength can open up. This song has such special meaning to me. I don’t even think I really heard the lyrics until I’ve been listening to it for more than a year and looked up the lyrics online. It’s different to read the words on the screen versus listening to the song.

A Kaleidoscope of Hidden Worlds, 14 ft x 110 ft, Fullerton & Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois

Death With Dignity song lyrics -

Spirit of my silence I can hear you, but I'm afraid to be near you
And I don't know where to begin
And I don't know where to begin

Somewhere in the desert there's a forest, and an acre before us
But I don't know where to begin
But I don't know where to begin
Again I lost my strength completely, oh be near me tired old mare
With the wind in your hair

Amethyst and flowers on the table, is it real or a fable?
Well I suppose a friend is a friend
And we all know how this will end

Chimney swift that finds me be my keeper, silhouette of the cedar
What is that song you sing for the dead
What is that song you sing for the dead
I see the signal searchlight strike me, in the window of my room
Well I got nothing to prove
Well I got nothing to prove

I forgive you mother I can hear you, and I long to be near you
But every road leads to an end
Yes every road leads to an end
Your apparition passes through me, in the willows and five red hens
You'll never see us again
You'll never see us again

As I finished the painting Lost Lens earlier this year I was listening to “Hungry Eyes” by Eric Carmen from the Dirty Dancing soundtrack. It’s one of my favorite soundtracks AND movies. I actually danced along like I was in the movie alone in my studio at that moment. I have the dance memorized in my head. I think songs ESPECIALLY great ones come again and again to impact our lives and offer inspirations. I even might do a dance video with the painting as it just the best feeling ever. Finish a painting is like having hungry eyes. You have permission to have good feelings during these unprecedented times in the quarantine. Be a light.

The perfect Dance Feet Footwork Animated GIF for your conversation. Discover and Share the best GIFs on Tenor.

Hungry Eyes song lyrics -

I've been meaning to tell you
I've got this feelin' that won't subside
I look at you and I fantasize
You're mine and tonight
Now I've got you in my sights

With these hungry eyes
One look at you and I can't disguise
I've got hungry eyes
I feel the magic between you and I

I want to hold you so hear me out
I want to show you what love's all about
Darling tonight
Now I've got you in my sights

With these hungry eyes
One look at you and I can't disguise
I've got hungry eyes
I feel the magic between you and I

With these hungry eyes
Now I've got you in my sights
With these hungry eyes
Now did I take you by surprise
I need you to see
This love was meant to be

I've got hungry eyes
One look at you and I can't disguise
I've got hungry eyes
I feel the magic between you and I

I've got hungry eyes
Now I've got you in my sights
With the hungry eyes
Now did I take you by surprise?
With my hungry eyes
With my hungry eyes
Now I've got you in my sights
With my hungry eyes

16 weeks of Daily Drawings, studio view, 2020.

I've been using this time of quarantine to develop my art and the focus of my practice has pivoted to be more experimental. Since my shows/projects were postponed (just like everyone else) until next year it's a good time to try some new things. 2020 is a year of trying to work through the anxiety and painful world we are now living in. I feel compelled to do something different even though I'm still digesting what is going on in the world. I am amazed at the ability of art to help to cope with uncertain times. I use art creation as a symbol of hope. I try to look for silver linings each day even if they are small. Being an artist is all about being vulnerable and trying to be comfortable with failures. There are always failures. I think artists are good at adapting and being resilient. Even if there are days I wonder what good it is to make. I've been taking refuge in all my failures before I try again. I remain committed to my vision, belief in my work, and focus on being genuine.

For now I’ve wrapped up the Daily Drawing project after 16 weeks. I’m planning to go back in and rework some of the pieces, as many seem unresolved to me. A pile of starts that may or may not lead somewhere

One thing I believe that artists are good at adapting to new situations. Create, know your value, believe in your vision, and repeat over and over again. Every road leads to an end but we can use the time that we have. Art can enable healing in these times where we need the relief more than ever. This is an opportunity for a glimmer optimism. We can explore limitations within our space and look for what we have. We all have something. I try to begin in a place of possibility, as I believe we all have something to offer. I will keep going back to this moment of zen to reset, recharge, and repeat. This is the visualization that I hold near my heart. What songs create your moments of zen?

TAKE REFUGE, RECHARGE, and REPEAT.

Diving into Lost Lens

June 27, 2020

Lost Lens, 52” x 60”, acrylic on canvas, 2020 — *Lost Lens*, 52” x 60”, acrylic on canvas, 2020

In painting plankton and stars, they become yours, each other, and hopefully something else. I think of this painting as a place to get lost through the lens of imagined nature. However, I zoom back and forth to depict a balance between things that exist and things that are imagined. The piece incorporates some real Amazonian flora and fauna. The rate that that flora and fauna in our ecosystem is being destroyed through climate change is absolutely devastating. By bringing attention to the amazing amount diversity in our environment, I hope that the painting encourages us to conserve our world. Consider all the things we have yet to discover. Color is bright, vivid, and amplified. In the rainforest, colors are so bright they look painted- it’s fantastical. It is this energy that I try to capture in the painting. On another layer, the composition looks through a telescopic lens, or is it a microscopic lens? I developed this painting for 6 months and finished just before the quarantine started. It was a quick painting relatively speaking as I often work on paintings this size for 1-2 years. The energy and excitement of the painting process was all encompassing. I often get stuck and move to another work but every once an awhile a painting flows and I just ride the wave. The work offers a glimpse of beauty, a shimmer of hope, and a space for comfort. I think art can provide a space for healing and highlight our connection to the world. A lens like tool can offer greater clarity on a subject because it allows you to see beyond the capacity of human eyesight. The painting magnifies scale to create an impossible situation. A burst of optimism is what I want to put out into the world with my paintings. The focus is on what’s outside of the lens and the space inside zooms outward to the cosmos. A densely populated canopy of beauty surrounds the cosmic circle. A great pause has forced us all to experience life more slowly during the quarantine. All of our routines have changed even for me even though I am still working from home. There is a slowness and greater appreciation for seeing flora on walks in my own neighborhood. There are many lenses to view the world that are personal and collective. I like to experience that and dream of new surprises around every corner. These are nutrients that feed the soul.