My artistic challenge has been to transform a still life form of a flower into dynamic, modern imagery. I am seeking to create balance between decorative Victorian art, as characterized by ornate shapes and patterns, and modernism, with its bold forms and bright colors. The flower gets stripped away, covered up and over-printed, yet it always finds a way back in, like a melodious refrain or a cherry blossom in springtime.
Shifting 19th century two-point perspective into a single-point, aerial perspective by flattening the image and seeing it from above, is the genesis for the “Squaring the Flower” which has become an in-depth exploration of color on a large scale. The "Tondo" woodcut series, on handmade paper, has blossomed from the stripping away of textures and patterns to explore abstraction of pure color compositions of geometry. An underlying passion for color, pattern and beauty, informs playful layering and improvisation.
