Artist Statement
Birds and animals sit at the center of my work. To me, each piece is a love letter to the natural world.
Many of the creatures I depict I know more through imagination than direct encounter. Yet when I see a magpie on a fencepost or a deer in a field, it can feel as though that one creature carries the presence of many others, briefly standing in for the whole living world. If anything in this world heals me, it is the winged and four-legged ones, and the art they inspire.
My work has the appearance of a painting, but it is actually composed of many small pieces of polyester fabric. I begin with a sketch drawn onto iron-on interfacing — a material usually used to reinforce collars but here reimagined as a creative substrate. Small fragments of patterned and plain polyester fabric are collaged into the design like a soft mosaic.
When the layered composition is ready, I place another sheet of interfacing over the surface and press it at high heat. The heat and pressure allow the dyes in the polyester to sublimate and migrate through the layers, imprinting themselves unpredictably and creating textures, shadows, and organic shifts of color that cannot be achieved through paint alone. I then work back into the surface with acrylic paint, blending forms and adding detail before mounting the finished piece to a birch panel.
My process holds several metaphors that feel healing to me. I work with materials that might otherwise be discarded, which speaks to reclamation and redemption. Fragments are torn apart and recombined, carrying something of the comfort of a quilt. Heat and pressure take the place of time, transforming those fragments in a small act of alchemy and reminding me that the pressures of life and experience are not only harsh but generative. Through it all I work with the quiet knowledge that beauty can emerge from unlikely places.
I have little more than an ounce of knowing, and I suspect I always will. But I can make things with my hands. And often, in the making, a knowing is felt that helps me sit in peace with the mystery.
Birds and animals sit at the center of my work. To me, each piece is a love letter to the natural world.
Many of the creatures I depict I know more through imagination than direct encounter. Yet when I see a magpie on a fencepost or a deer in a field, it can feel as though that one creature carries the presence of many others, briefly standing in for the whole living world. If anything in this world heals me, it is the winged and four-legged ones, and the art they inspire.
My work has the appearance of a painting, but it is actually composed of many small pieces of polyester fabric. I begin with a sketch drawn onto iron-on interfacing — a material usually used to reinforce collars but here reimagined as a creative substrate. Small fragments of patterned and plain polyester fabric are collaged into the design like a soft mosaic.
When the layered composition is ready, I place another sheet of interfacing over the surface and press it at high heat. The heat and pressure allow the dyes in the polyester to sublimate and migrate through the layers, imprinting themselves unpredictably and creating textures, shadows, and organic shifts of color that cannot be achieved through paint alone. I then work back into the surface with acrylic paint, blending forms and adding detail before mounting the finished piece to a birch panel.
My process holds several metaphors that feel healing to me. I work with materials that might otherwise be discarded, which speaks to reclamation and redemption. Fragments are torn apart and recombined, carrying something of the comfort of a quilt. Heat and pressure take the place of time, transforming those fragments in a small act of alchemy and reminding me that the pressures of life and experience are not only harsh but generative. Through it all I work with the quiet knowledge that beauty can emerge from unlikely places.
I have little more than an ounce of knowing, and I suspect I always will. But I can make things with my hands. And often, in the making, a knowing is felt that helps me sit in peace with the mystery.
I am a member of The Painted Moose Artist Collective. Art is on display at The Painted Moose - 12 Balsam Ave, Bragg Creek, AB.
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