Overall Statement about My WorkI am a multidisciplinary artist exploring personal experience as a gateway to broader human concerns and experience.
I got my start in drawing and painting, especially of the human figure and portrait. That work always had a very human focus, (as well as artistic), not to work toward a human-centric philosophy, but rather to access our deeper humanity, one which ultimately connects everyone to everything, the opposite of the isolationist narrative at war with the common good in our social and political discourse and policy. Being multidisciplinary is a necessary expression of my nature, to encompass the scope of my imagination, the depth of my curiosity, as well as my drive, (perhaps as a longtime designer), to find meaningful form, through tools, materials and processes, to realize and express my ideas. This has led me to work in installation art as well as making images and objects. My media continues to include painting and drawing (sometimes as performance), along with: printmaking; mixed media (often photo-based or incorporating antique anatomical illustrations); photo-digital printmaking and video; photo-based and mixed media sculpture; working with found objects; fibre; textile, including upholstery; and captured performance as photography. In my studio I am always testing, experimenting and prototyping, new materials, processes and combinations. Hybrid forms and media are a special interest, perhaps because as a bi-ethnic person, I am also hybrid. |
Subject to Limitation is the umbrella for my interrelated work on confinement and barriers of all kinds, which then also led me into examining vulnerability, empathy, identity and migration.
In the barriers work you'll see boxes and fences of various kinds as well as domestic objects like drawers and chairs that later branched out into two further streams: houses-lawns-domestic life in one, and skin (as social barrier, as physical barrier, signifying human vulnerability and as a vehicle for empathy) in the other. In A Full Heart, and most recently Heartspace, I use the anatomical structures of the heart as a gateway to exploring states of the human heart viscerally, emotionally, poetically and metaphorically. It grew out of my interest in medical models and antique anatomical illustrations, and laterally connected to and combined with my work on skin, vulnerability and empathy. While hearts are my main focus right now, the other elements find their way into this work which enriches and deepens it. My latest work explores grief, love and loss, major and universal human – and heart-based – experiences. On a broader level, our recent, ongoing, shared experiences of global pandemic and lockdown as well as the growing international refugee situation, bring added meaning and urgency to my work with barriers. Downloadable copy of my Heartspace artist statement and biography:
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