Artist’s Statement: Collage

I am interested in our lives in this time and place. I use collage and the bits and pieces of life contrasted with a central image to explore it. I carry on a graphic dialogue between an icon, or central image, and the bits and pieces. I might use a Art Historical icon (famous painting) or purely contemporary icon, such as the Parking Meter, or coffee cup. While I am working my head is very quiet inside and I hear bits of statements. The quieter I am during work the louder the conversation is. It could be from an artist of the past, i.e. Leonardo Da Vinci or Mona Lisa telling me something. Or a statement about an event such as getting a ticket (Parking Meter). I write what ever I hear around the borders of the image as I am working.

Along with the bits of conversations, I frame the image with pieces and fragments of my everyday life, like advertisements, newspaper clippings, off-hand remarks, unpaid bills, prescription drugs, objects found or bought. A graphic dialogue emerges,narrows down and takes form creating a conversation about us. I never start with an idea about what the piece is about, I always let the conversations guide me.

Many of my works deal with things in my life, such as, overwhelming bills, relationships, food, possessions, etc. Many also are about identity. How I see myself, how men view women or women view men. These are on the surface while in the juxtaposition of Icon and object or clipping, deeper things such as love, fragility, desire, despair, loss, grief, joy are felt and recorded. I find humor in this juxtaposition, and humor for me is a way to see difficult things.

I am particularly interested in the altered bits of graphics. For example: I found an old newspaper while working on a Marilyn Monroe piece and looked in the lost and found column. I found a poignant one and crossed out everything lightly except the word “lost”. On the Statue of Liberty I found a bunch of heads and cut them in half and mixed tops of heads with bottoms of heads. I like to communicate, without words, by altering something.

Solo Exhibitions

• 2009 Palette Art Café/Gallery, Collage on paper, mixed media
• 2008 Palette Art Gallery, Collage on paper
• 2008 ACT Gallery at the Geary, Figure Painting Group show
• 2007 ACT Gallery at the Geary, Collage on paper and Figure Paintings. Oil on board
• 2006 Palette Art Café/Gallery, Collage on paper, mixed media
• 2006 Spice Box Jewish Art Museum San Francisco, Invitational
• 2000 Jernigan Wicker Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA
• 1998 Jernigan Wicker Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA
• 1998 Bolinas Museum LAP Gallery, Bolinas, CA
• 1996 Cecile Moochnek Gallery, Berkeley, CA

Group Exhibitions

• 1998 “Works on Paper”, Bolinas Museum, Bolinas, CA
• 1997 “Endangered Species: Artists Examine Environmental Issues,” Jernigan Wicker Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA
• “Women Paint Women,” Jernigan Wicker Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA
• 1985 Juried Competition, Los Gatos, CA
• 1982 Three person show: San Mateo Arts Council, Manor Gallery Two person show: Portola Valley Gallery
• 1980-83 Exhibiting Member, Portola Valley Gallery
• 1980 Juried Competition, Bay Arts: Third place, oil painting “Peninsula 7,” Foothill College Extension Building
• 1975 Two person show, Rubicon Gallery, Los Altos, CA

Education

• 1980-85 Stanford University: art history courses in Ancient, Asian, Renaissance and Modern Art
• 1970-present Canada College: ongoing education in pre-medical anatomy, painting and drawing
• 1960-64 San Jose State University: BA in Graphics, minor in Photography
• 1959 California College of Arts & Crafts, Oakland, CA: fall semester, courses in classical drawing and painting