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In 2000, my husband, son and I moved from urban San Francisco, to the beach in Pacifica,
California. Our new home looks directly out on the Pacific shoreline. Across the road from our house is a
fishing pier, and on the pier is a bait shop. I was particularly captivated by the dusty, sun bleached polaroids
of fisherman which were taped up in it’s windows. The humanity of these men holding up their catches inspired
and charged my imagination. This was the beginning of my Beach Series.
More recently, the subject of my fascination has moved from fisherman to people in the surf.
Painting a moving figure in this wet environment pushes it into abstraction. These new figures relate
energetically with my past work in the Swimmer and Women Shopping Series. I like working on that thin line
between reality and abstraction. I enjoy finding the gestures in paint. I am searching there for an unedited
glimpse into the human condition.
As I paint, I shift back and forth between working on large and small canvases.
The small work informs the large and the large paintings inform the small ones. They become “studies” for each other.
I paint in oil, wet into wet. Oil paint is a very elastic medium with rich color, which will stay wet for days.
I use brushes and pieces of cardboard to move the paint. I am constantly exploring the canvas’s surface. Mine is a process
of paint application and removal from which visual surprises emerge. My paintings evolve from the fluid stream of my conscious
and subconscious mind. The viewer is free to enjoy the surface light, color and movement or go deeper.
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