Charleston Through An Artist's Eye, the Blog                                                                                                               

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Artist's Statement

Fascinated with the complexity of the human condition, with connection and relationship, the paintings on this site originate from my place in a large, old southern family - my ties to it, and my struggles with it. God and family are central in the traditions of my southern family, and the entire drama of the Old Testament is acted out periodically, with the appropriately accompanying comedy, tragedy and irony. Recently I have fallen in love with place, a tiny island in South Carolina, so the work is taking a new path on this labyrinthine journey. Edisto Island, herself, is physically like a labyrinth with her winding rivers that encircle.

The people I paint, while they represent family members that are my own, are inspired by the people I find in old black & white photographs salvaged from flea markets and estate sales, and lately, even in pop imagery from magazines and advertisting.

Influenced by the psychology of Carl Jung, who talks about the archetypal imagery of the unconscious, my paintings begin with something I am drawn to intuitively in the original image, or often in a mixture of imagery. Then I trust the power of the images to change from the original photograph to a completely different form. Only then do I know what originally attracted me to the image. The work has served as solice and healing for me. I hope they can be enjoyed also for the simply sensual elements of color, energy and shape.

Aside from the pathos and wildly comic education my family affords: three children, four siblings, four step siblings and many more, my education also includes four years of Catholic boarding school inAsheville, NC in the sixties, and a degree in Fine Arts from a small Catholic college in Miami. The irony begins here since the matriarch of the family, my 87 year old mother, is not Catholic but staunchly fundamentalist charismatic Christian.

Alice Neel and Flannery O'Connor are my artistic heros, and I admire Marlene Dumas, Paula Rego, Gerhardt Richter and the courageous & brilliant Kara Walker. Alice Neel's work is brave and raw and utterly honest, and I am continually awed by the genius of Flannery O'Connor's short stories - her razor sharp wit, her deep spirituality. She said that our art must come from our own country, the place we know, thus inspiring this work.