Art
My art is called upon to witness truth, to note the organic flows of both beatific and horrific life experiences, to aspire to do no harm and to dance in the munificence of creating infinite possibilities. It is about explorations of the psyche and notions of self in relationship to others, the environment and metaphysical realities of the ancestors. The images are concerned with those distinct spaces where intellect and heart converge to discover and render visible messages from deep within.
I have had a long time interest in art and the development of socio-spiritual and socio-political consciousness, and have wondered what might be the condition of the world if practitioners of the arts raised pen and brushes, voice and vibrations in service of remedying the insults to sacredness. Art is a language of the heart. It can heal, lead, save lives, and holds within its unique potential the capacity to afford metaphoric mirrors for individual and collective introspection. The goal of my art is to transcend the limitations of social constructs and to speak directly to an inseparable essence of being whole.
In my lens of perception, the uproars and gentle breezes of life can move u s towards heightened states of awareness regarding our willingness to be on both sides of graciousness, both side of reconciliations of injustices, and both sides of knowing and accepting our wonderments and fragilities. It is my hope that my work speaks to those places where we might know consciousness and character from the inside out.
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Heart Visions
Heart Visions is a beautiful and evocative book of visual and poetic images. The body of work delights the aesthetics, stimulates the intellect, and invites the heart to step into heightened visions of creative and spiritual potency. The book enlightens and saddens. It offers hope and encourages actions toward an egalitarianism that includes the honouring of humans, nature and the environment. The book traverses paths from early consciousness of creativity and indivisibility with nature through tribulations of grief and loss to notions of hope and tenderness. It guides the reader on a journey from the wellspring of my creativity, to the birthplace of spiritual and socio-political consciousness expressed through more than sixty poetically annotated paintings arranged in thematic categories of awakening, journeying and embracing the full experiences of life. It is my hope that my work delights the senses and inspires the soul.
The Artist
I have been making art for as long as far back as I can remember, first through representational art as a door to life seen through my eyes, and then through abstract expressionism as a door to the internal landscape of life experiences, seen and felt. I graduated from a competitive New York arts high school and hold undergraduate and graduate degrees in Art and Art Therapy, and a doctorate in International and Multicultural Education. For dozens of years I have used visual and poetic art to teach academics, facilitate art therapy groups and train social service providers working with traumatised populations.
I paint about the awe of nature’s magnificence and the sadness of its neglect, the splendour of tenderness and the ravages of inequities, etc. My work is sweeping in colour and movement, with visual tension and wisdom’s pauses of silence. The goal is to evoke emotions wedded to intellect and intellect to actions of compassion and consciousness.
I work primarily in thematic series of intra-psychic, cosmologic and socio-historic subject matter. Most of my work is a mixed media of acrylics, oil pastels and graphite on canvas and 400 lb. watercolour paper.
I have exhibited in the San Francisco, Oakland, Santa Monica, Hermosa Beach, Los Angeles, Mill Valley, New York, Santa Cruz, and the Lake Tahoe area. I am a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother.
My work ranges in size from 22 x 30” to 48 x 60” and typically priced from $2,000 - $6,000 for unframed originals, to approximately 1/3 the cost for Giclée prints depending on the size. Commissioned, and custom size work is available.