Master and Servant                                                                                    January 10, 2012

My new body of work titled Master and Servant is a departure from my previous yet concurrent “Big Bird” paintings. Figurative work is not unfamiliar territory for me as most of my painting career has involved the human figure.  My new muse has become my family and the roll of the urban mother. While exploring new endeavors in my own family life, I am fascinated by how others manage in the city as well. I myself have found it rewarding and extremely challenging, and I can still recall my single days when I wasn’t so sure I’d have the pleasure of experiencing such an adventure. These paintings all have the common thread of the narrative genre and a literary story.  Each painting depicts families engaging in everyday (or night) activities.  Some of these include: barbequing, doing laundry, playing in the back yard, cooking, and the ever so popular night-time soothing.  

            The juggling act of changing hats from mom to wife and artist over the last year has morphed into one big “hat”.  Other influences are the legacies of the women in my family before me and how they handled these same issues in a completely different time. With pleasure and gratefulness to my husband, I feel I have crossed the hump from a very difficult feat of remaining a working artist through my children’s first years and my husband’s own soul searching and rediscovery. Fueled by gratification and the need to document a fragment of time, each painting is a “snapshot” of a moment.  Layers of paint and glazes interchange to build the surfaces while play of color, pattern, and drawing deliberately only suggest the narrative, leaving room for the imagination.             

            Many of the pieces from this group are what I call “box paintings”.  This is because they have deep stretchers for continuing the scene around to the sides, top and bottom of the canvas. Most are oil on canvas but some are acrylic on canvas.  My stretchers are crafted by a professional wood worker out of Poplar.  I prefer to stretch and prepare my own canvases. The surface of my paintings are layered several times to achieve texture, depth and appear to have a luminous quality.  

            Emotions are a large motivator when I get to my studio. The juggling act of changing hats from mom, wife, artist has over the last year morphed into one big “hat”.  Other influences are the legacy of  the women in my family before me and how they handled these same issues in a completely different time. With pleasure, and gratefulness to my husband, I can say that I feel I have crossed the hump from a very difficult feat of remaining a working artist through my children’s first years and my husbands own soul searching and rediscovery. This body of work is fueled by victory that I am delighted to be documenting through paint and feel it may be my strongest yet.  As an artist I feel my experience has helped me to grow and push my medium in ways I haven’t before.