Artist Statement

I am a caregiver by nature, and a self-taught acrylic mixed media artist who started painting in midlife when I discovered that the creative process could be a relaxing yet energizing counterbalance to the cognitive demands of being a physician. I quickly learned that artmaking could renew me, activate my senses, enliven me, distract me, provide an escape. I also discovered that while I easily get lost within a canvas, my time painting is when I can subconsciously process emotions, thoughts, and concerns that come from caring for patients. When I paint, I strive to respond to each brushstroke, mark, or paint gesture by staying present with my work in the same way that I might instinctively sit and attend to a patient in the exam room. Both the canvas and the patient require nurturing, and my attentiveness; I do my best to respond to each with an intuitive sense of what to do next. Feeling and intuiting direct actions as I react to each new mark or layer, as I engage in a dance with my canvas, excavating and revealing, exploring, and pushing beyond self-imposed restrictions. I escape my thinking brain and allow the inner joy I derive from colors, shapes, and lines, to drive my actions. With the move to large-scale formats in the past few years, big-sized canvases or swaths of un-stretched canvas unrolled and tacked upon a wall invite an even more liberating expanse of space for this dance! Experimentation with varied mediums, mixing paint colors, and incorporating collage elements all contribute to an exciting adventure of self-discovery! Most of my works are nonobjective, inspired by a written passage, a verbal exchange, a pattern or asymmetry in nature, feelings, thoughts, or the day’s events.