In my work I depict the landscape, space, and figurative elements as a metaphor for the existential journey. A month-long Artist Residency in Northern Wyoming in late 2005 reinforced my deep sense of rhythm and movement within the vast expanses of land and sky. From my Chicago studio on the fourth floor of an industrial building, I watch the immense space of sky, changing light, birds soaring, pipes and cylinders poking out of rooftops, and El trains snaking around, reflecting silver and lavender in the evening light. From these influences I merge the industrial and the natural world, with objects referencing familiar industrial or domestic tools and transformed into animated biomorphic characters.

I cut out irregularly shaped wood panels that fit together horizontally like a puzzle, with each end curving inward like parentheses that contain the sectional image.  I begin with automatic writing, making gestural calligraphic marks with liquid black oil paint that move across the surface. The marks reflect the movement of my arm/body as I progress from left to right; it is traveling made visible with mark-making. The four panels allow me to work simultaneously on more than one image, creating a sense of movement and energy. I unify them into one painting through their interaction. The imagery results from the rhythm of the black marks on the white surface: familiar objects appear, and I give them form and direction. The drawings also have a horizontal format; here I create a sense of place with a particular light, with a distant vista of mountains and an atmospheric heavy sky built up with smoky charcoal.  Often shells, masks, or shoes appear, continuing the metaphor of the unknown journey. The lively energy, playful and exhilarating, calls forth childhood days of inquisitiveness and exploration.