ART > 2018

Blue Birds
Acrylic on Panel
18 x 24
2018
Swimming in Circles
Sold
Acrylic on Canvas
2018
Unsteady
Acrylic on Panel
2018
Don't Look Now
Acrylic on Panel
11 x 14
2018
Love Birds
Sold
Acrylic on Panel
2018
Love Birds- Green
Acrylic on Panel
2018
Crumbling
Acrylic on Panel w/ Collage
18 x 24
2018
Green couch
Acrylic on Panel
2018
Ostrich Pink
Acrylic on Panel
11 x 14
2018
interior design
Acrylic on Canvas
24 x 36
2018
acrylic on panel of interior with animals
Acrylic on Panel
11 x 14
2018
Wall Cracked Wide
Acrylic on Panel
11 x 14
2018
Acrylic on panel of interior with animals
Acrylic on Panel
11 x 14
2017

This series of paintings began with an ad image torn out of the New York Times magazine. It may have been trying to sell me a couch or rug or lamp. I admired and longed for the stylish, quiet and clean interiors. These pristine rooms didn’t seem real or related to most people’s actual life. They produced an unrealistic expectation of how to live one’s life and created a feeling of inadequacy. Our lives would never measure up to the perfection shown in the ads.

I decided to paint the image using a black and white palette. The addition of silhouetted shapes of dogs and cats reference my previous cut paper installations and used stencils from that work. The flattened figures of the animals alluded to my pets, both here and gone. I started to add more uncommon animals that would not usually be roaming your home; birds, geese, deer, wolves, rabbits and fish. Putting these creatures in an unnatural environment created a feeling of anxiety or humor depending on your point of view.

Some of the images suggest the state of the country and the anxiety we are feeling in dealing with the major issues of the day, the sense of our world on shaky foundations and not able to support the systems we thought were solid. The sky is falling, the earth is crumbling and no one is safe. Staying home now, for most of us, more than ever is a concept that denotes safety and security.
The mistrust, suspicion and unpredictability of the news cycle is a reminder of this. The sadness and uncertainty, the daily unease and the ultimate heartache are depicted with a literal hole in the ground or cliff edge.