Artist Statement
ART FOR THE SPIRITED
Abstract and Contemporary Art
My paintings are a reflection of my diverse life experiences. I live in the South, but I am a native of New Mexico and return there often. Years of working with disabled and disadvantaged children and women have given me a unique perspective of the human condition. While I do not paint those experiences, my life and art are influenced by them. Art changed my life.
I love experimental and mixed media art. My paintings are grouped in series, some of which I have completed and other series my work continues. An on-going series for me is titled "Women 'n Windows" and can be found in my gallery of paintings numbered 2 through 29. "Women 'n Wallpaper" is one of my most recent series which depict elongated women in still life paintings. The first painting in my gallery is a "Women 'n Wallpaper" series piece. Several years ago, I fell in love with the bluffs of Port Gibson, Mississippi, and completed a series of collage paintings as a result of my emotional response to the vegetation and loess soil of the area. There are three paintings in that series you can see in my gallery numbered 31, 32 and 33. My "Shades of Gray" series was inspired by one of my visits to New Mexico. In that series, I used a limited palette. Those pieces are paintings 34 through 41 in my gallery. And, for fun, I did a series of pears which are numbered 42 through 45 in my gallery. I plan to paint additional pieces in the pear series using collage and a variety of mixed media techniques.
My artwork has evolved from transparent watercolor to experimental mixed media, acrylic, collage, oil, and encaustic. I have studied with nationally known artists including
Robert E. Wood, Frank Webb, Miles Batt, Stephen Quiller, and Jerry Seagle. My studies also include the Intensive Studies Seminar in Taos, New Mexico, and the Tougaloo Art Colony in Jackson, Mississippi, with instructors Moe Brooker and Murray DePillars. My studies continue with the Mississippi Art Colony which is led by nationally known instructors including Mary Lovelace O'Neal, Ron Pokrasso, Randall LaGro, and Edgardo Kerlegend of Mexico. In 2010, I studied with Robert Burridge of Arroyo Grande, California.
My paintings have been exhibited at shows sponsored by the Mississippi Watercolor Society, the Vicksburg Art Association, the Mississippi Art Colony, and the Mississippi State Committee/National Museum of Women in the Arts. My artwork has received recognition and awards including two Best in Show. My paintings have been juried into the Grand National Exhibition sponsored by the Mississippi Watercolor Society five times. In 2003, my collage painting Celebration of Jacob won the BancorpSouth Award. I earned Signature Membership in the Mississippi Watercolor Society in 2005. My painting Windsor Ruins III was exhibited at the Mississippi Museum of Art in the 2008 Grand National Exhibit.
Other achievements include being commissioned to do a painting for the 1997 Christmas card for Governor and Mrs. Kirk Fordice and being a featured artist for the Mississippi Library Commission in 2007. My painting Hearts for Hope was the featured artwork for the 2009 Mississippi HeArts against AIDS annual art auction to raise funds to assist Mississippians living with HIV and AIDS.
Additional personal information is available on request.