statement

The act of laying graphite down onto paper is personal, intimate and immediate. Layers are stripped away and it is just me, the pencil and the paper. When I put pencil to paper there is no disguise. I am exposed and vulnerable. It feels urgent. The immediacy and urgency of drawing connects me to life, to its grandeur, its frailty and the ache that seems to accompany living. These drawings address the idea of longing and that very same ache that we feel as we long to be somewhere else, to be someone different, to have something we don't have -the longing for more, for bigger, for better. The raft imagery is a metaphor. It is the means of travel to attain what is longed for. In building this raft, I scoured the woods and carefully selected branches that would line up evenly and fit together. I wound the rope around the branches, tugging and tightening to insure a sound and sea worthy construction. I lost myself in this building process and my reality became the raft. I forgot about the raft being a means of travel. And so it is when I draw. I lose myself. My reality becomes the act of putting pencil to paper – its grandeur and its frailty. The care I took in building the raft pales in comparison to the meticulous, detailed care I exert when I draw. Drawing quenches the ache of longing. When I draw I am completely satisfied.

bio

born: 1950, New Haven, Conneticut

education

Jacksonville University, MAT, 1999
Jacksonville University, BFA 1996
Rhode Island School of Design

selected awards/honors

Ragdale Foundation, Artist Residency, 2015
Rensing Center, Artist Residency, 2014
Herald Dispatch, Award for the Arts, Huntington, West Virginia

selected solo or two-person exhibits

The Art Store, Duet, Charleston, West Virginia, 2013
Ohio University Southern, Dwell, Ironton, Ohio, 2011
The Art Store, Strongholds, Charleston, West Virginia, 2011
Pierce Art Gallery, PaperWorks, West Virginia, 2005

selected group shows

Ohio University Southern, Art Music & Social Change, Ironton, Ohio 2015
Translations Gallery, All Good Things, Canton, Ohio, 2014
Muse Gallery, Rock Paper Scissors, Columbus, Ohio, 2012
Carla Massoni Gallery, Celebration, Chesterton, Maryland, 2011