I was inspired to use a brand new color palette after hearing, "Oh yeah, those are your colors," several times in the space of a few weeks. I forced a change in perspective, also, by using a small section of an earlier drawing for each image, enlarging a 2" x 2" section of drawing to fit my panel. They still have layers of the same symbols from ancient goddess cultures, but they are so enlarged, only small sections remain.

About the artist:

I was born in 1962 and raised in southern California. I began my art education in 1988 at Palm Beach Community College in south Florida during my seven year career as a polo photographer and then continued at Santa Monica College after returning to California in 1991. I give full credit to my excellent professors at both community colleges for my strong foundation in the basic skills of my craft. I began to develop my current work at the San Francisco Art Institute where, in1997, I took my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting. In 2003, I took my Master of Fine Arts in Painting at New Mexico State University.
This work is driven conceptually by the idea of the house as a metaphor for female experience, with walls as a metaphor for the body that contains that experience. I use modern house-building materials, both wood and topping compound (drywall mud.) Topping compound re-wets, so the acrylic washes that I use to paint the symbols get absorbed and thereby contained, rather than sitting on the surface as paint typically does. The work is both wet and dry sanded between layers and incised creating a simulation of texture and age.

The symbols that I use are derived from ancient goddess cultures, primarily from the work of the late UCLA archeologist, Marija Gimbutas. I layer symbols that represent interconnected-ness and partnership with symbols that represent separation/isolation and try to find a balance visually, as a metaphor for the balance we try to find in our lives between being separate/individual and yet intimately connected to everything around us.