My work is often comprised of otherworldly, organic, abstractions, which reference biological life and natural processes. I am particularly intrigued by the mathematical order underlying growth patterns and the dynamism of “S” curves.
These pieces are created out of wet formed, translucent vellum paper, colored with watercolor and colored pencil. Without being deliberately referential, I seek to create pieces, which are bio-morphically indeterminate, lying somewhere between the natural form of plants, microscopic sea creatures and science/fictional biology; otherworldly and familiar, comforting and disquieting.
Beginning with a flat sheet of paper, which I dampen, crease, fold and bend, my work grows in a non-linear fashion. I follow intuitive pathways as I create elements, then combine and recombine parts; an incremental process that resists the discrete, sequential, hierarchies, imposed by logic and reason and instead reveals a complex ecology of interactions.
My idea with these works has been to reduce the number of elements involved in the creative process; essentializing down to the simplest components- paper, color and fold. I love that this utmost simplicity of practice, leads to a dense intricacy of form.
The resulting pieces explore the delicate, yet energetic, dynamic processes of the natural world. In nature nothing stands still. These pieces with their twisting, rippling forms, honor this vigorous action. Crumpling and pleating on the other hand are exercises in controlled disorder, resulting in an object of extraordinary mathematical and structural complexity.
If life is in unceasing movement, then perhaps art pauses and captures a single frame of that perpetual film. Life is stilled, frozen for a moment, thereby implying the possibility of a context, which is stable and unchangeable; where time and limitation have no meaning.
Education
2000 Digital Art and Design Certificate, Center For Electronic Arts, San Francisco, CA
1991 M.F.A., New Genre, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
1984 B.A. Sculpture, Pomona College, Claremont, CA, cum laude
1981 Attended University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
Solo Exhibitions
2020 Mercury 20, Frozen Moment, Oakland, CA
2020 Mercury 20, Window Show-Cabinet of Curiosity, Oakland, CA
1995 Fairfield Art Center, Fairfield, CA
1993 San Francisco Art Commission, Market Street Art in Transit Program
1993 The Lab, San Francisco, CA
1992 Southern Exposure, San Francisco, CA
1992 Hayward State University, Hayward, CA
1989 Berkeley Arts Commission, Addison Street Site, Berkeley, CA
1988 Monadnock Building, Off-Site Works, San Francisco, CA
Group Exhibitions
2020 The Space Between, Headford Lace Project, Headford, Ireland
2017 Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles, Berkeley, CA
2015 Bus Bench Projects, Oakland CA
2104 Chandra Cerrito Gallery, Oakland, CA
2012 AB25-Collective Memories, Arts Benicia, Benicia, CA
2011 East Bay Open Studios, Oakland, CA
2010 Artist’s Holiday Sale, Oakland, CA
2006 Peninsula Museum of Art, Belmont, CA
2005 Peninsula Museum of Art, Belmont, CA
2002 Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA
2001 Trans America Pyramid, San Francisco, CA
1998 Benicia Public Library, Benicia, CA
1998 Berkeley Public Library, Berkeley, CA
1997 San Francisco Art Commission Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1996 Arts Benicia, Benicia, CA
1995 Trojanowska Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1995 SOMAR Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1994 San Francisco Camerawork, San Francisco, CA
1993 San Francisco State Union Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1992 Bechtel International Center, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
1992 Zen Center Hospice, San Francisco, CA
1991 New Langton Arts, San Francisco, CA
1990 Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1990 Bayfront Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1990 Immanuel Walter McBean Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1990 Art Space Annex, San Francisco, CA
1989 Weir Gallery, Berkeley, CA
1988 Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, CA
1987 Gallery Sanchez, San Francisco, CA
1986 San Mateo Arts Council, Belmont, CA
1986 Sunnyvale Civic Art Gallery, Sunnyvale, CA
Residencies
1992 Djerassi Foundation, Woodside, CA
Awards
1993 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship Grant, Works on Paper
1993 William and Ester B. Davidowitz Fellowship
1991 Susan Watkins Award
1986 Best of Show- Mixed Media, Sunnyvale Civic Art Gallery
Publications
2020 The Space Between, Exhibition Catalog, Headford, Ireland
2000 Class Catalog, Center for Electronic Art, San Francisco, CA
1995 Matt Peiken, A Wall Full of Memories, Fairfield Daily Republic
1995 Who’s Who in America
1994 Who’s Who in American Art
1993 Reena Jana, Transformations, Art Week,
1992 Meredith Tromble, Art at the Zen Center Hospice,
1992 Cid De La Cruz,New Work at the Universiity Art Gallery, Hayward Pioneer
1991 David Bonetti, Alternative Transformations, San Francisco Examiner
1991 Kenneth Baker, Three Woman at New Langton, San Francisco Chronicle
1991 S.F.A.I. Viewbook, San Francisco Art Institute
1991 M.F. A. Catalog, San Francisco Art Institute
1990 Pick of the Week, San Francisco Bay Guardian
1986 Bay Arts Catalog, San Mateo Arts Council, San Mateo, CA
