About Barrels

Art has always been my refuge. Art making became my constant companion from an early age, as well as my tool for understanding the world and expressing my experiences. My art making became a ritual of finding cohesion within chaos, and deliberately crafting a sense of belonging and arrival inside of constant change.

The places I have spent the most time, and that have felt most like home to me, are by the Chesapeake Bay and the Puget Sound. These inlets feel like gentle resting places, where the abundance of the ocean can be accessed without the harsh intensity of the coast. I see the images that come out of me as gentle resting places too. They’re full of complexity and depth, but without harshness.

My abstract landscapes challenge the viewer to find home, belonging, and a sense of arrival within a place that is vast, confusing, and barely there. While these landscapes are not threatening or intense, they are elusive and disorienting.

I paint by gradually building multiple layers of translucent color washes, alternated with layers of tiny dots and marks. During this slow tedious process, something magical happens. Nothingness becomes a complete mess; the mess becomes a complex visual world with depth, movement, perspective, and voice. The piece itself goes through a process of becoming, similar to the development process we experience as humans. Going through this journey over and over again, with each and every painting, I have learned hope, resilience, and the skills to repair what is broken. My paintings allow me to relive this learning and to document it for the viewer. The viewer can see elements of each disconnected layer, while also seeing the layers together as a cohesive whole. 

Recently, I have started experimenting in ceramic sculpture, following similar themes and approaches. I have noticed in my paintings, the subject or figure is in an environment, whereas in my ceramic work, there are environments within a figure. I am curious to see how this evolves.