submerged
In 2009 after the death of my father, I began painting images of people underwater – not swimming or playing in the water, but submerged, fully dressed and floating. The distortion of the water appealed to my sense of the figure and the mystery of loss. The incongruity of beauty, sorrow and death continue to fascinate me.

sumo wrestlers
My son Jason gave me a rubber sumo wrestler doll for hand exercises. The three-inch doll inspired me to look at myself. I imagined myself empowered by the wrestler. Houston Restaurant Ouisie’s Table allowed me to sketch and photograph the sumo with their desserts. Kenny and Ziggy’s cooked traditional deli foods for the sumo – blintzes, mile-high corned beef sandwiches, matzoh ball soup. The Dessert Gallery and Gravitas in Houston and bistros in Venice have been the site of sumo stagings. He remains a humorous but significant source of ideas about body image.

storms
Long before hurricanes (Allison, Katrina, Rita or Ike) hit Texas shores, I’ve been a fan of turbulent weather.  As a child growing up in Baltimore, I would sit on the front porch with my Dad and watch storms etch their way across the Maryland sky.  Living in Oklahoma extended my interest and introduced me to the majestic and yet destructive power of tornadoes.  I began to examine how storms can serve as a metaphor for difficult relationships, beautiful and intriguing while dangerous and destructive.

portraits
In every math class or science lab when I should have been listening or taking notes, I was drawing faces. If I am sitting next to you on a plane or in an airport and you fall asleep, you are my unwilling subject, model and muse.  The opportunity to paint a portrait is so much more than just the features of a persons’ face, it is their history, soul and feelings, which rise to the surface as a badge of their courage.

printmaking
Investigating monotypes opened up new textures and patterns for me. Through printmaking, I’ve been examining issues of death, loss, personal health, sexual identity, my reaction to terrorism, and images of a grandfather I never knew.  The spontaneity of the medium allows me to take more chances and enjoy having less control. 

mixed media
Assemblage objects emerged in my painting after I tentatively glued rubber gloves and coiled wire to a portrait of my ex-husband.  The idea expanded when a gallery in Marfa sent me a bank bag to incorporate into my work.  The goal was to examine the relationship between art and money.  But something else happened for me; the spatial relationships clicked.  This relationship between what is flat, but painted to look real, and what is really a three-dimensional object, has become a fascination.