ARTISTS STATEMENT

While walking in our fields at the end of the growing season, I notice the canary grass, its elegant lines, just the right amount of bend. A pile of tiny maple shavings lay in the dirt, the remains from our 1905 wood planer. Breakfast is over, I hate to throw out those egg shells. Can I crush them? Can I print them? Can I …? All these thoughts run through my mind, the sense of possibilities. 

Surrounded by a creative family as a child, listening to opera on Saturday while cleaning the house, the Horizon (a monthly arts publication) on hand and a mother who hand painted a full size circus elephant on our cellar walls, the arts were always a fine influence in my life. At age 16, with the encouragement of my Grandmother, we attended painting classes together.  The exposure to formal art classes holds fond memories. Still today art classes, workshops and instruction, effect a large part of my practice. This includes my current project titled Absorbing which for me further confirms the notion that as artists we are constantly influenced by our experiences. 

These experiences, especially later in life, have enriched me intellectually, artistically and personally in ways I only could have imaged. Any mark making process to create an image is the best explanation for what I do, whether solarplate, etchings, collagraphs, monoprints, silk screen or dye on paper, it is all about the marks from simple to complex.

As an artist living in a rural setting one cannot help but be influenced by nature.

I am fortunate to have farm fields which offer a variety of plant and organic material. These materials beg to be printed. They reveal emerging patterns while confirming the delicacy and the beauty of the natural world. The process and the resources used to create my work are equally as important as the final piece. My prints have been defined as “drawing with nature.” Those images explore the conceptual relationship between the organic and the refined.

After high school I submitted my portfolio to New York’s School of Visual Arts and I was accepted. I started classes there in 1974 but the pressure of trying to make a living and going to school became too great and I had to withdraw, a choice I sometimes regret. At age 25 my life took a rural turn. I moved to upstate New York’s bucolic Hudson Valley and built my own home in the woods. I met my husband and together raised three charming children while running a successful sawmill and lumber business. Though my art had been interrupted, some personal and career endeavors like renovating houses lent themselves to artistic satisfaction. However, that whispering in my ear “get back to studying art” never left.

With the encouragement of my family and never being one to shy from a challenge, I enrolled as a part-time  Visual Art student at Ulster County Community College. I realized I had to jump through the academic hoops, which was a bit scary, especially being out of school for over 30 years.  An Independent study course led me to the Woodstock School of Art and the Printmaking Shop. That medium stirred a creative force in me, and with each new lesson I gain technical skills. I wanted to learn all the printmaking techniques and after earning my Visual Arts Degree at Ulster at age 55, I continued my education and gained entrance to the College of Fine and Performing Arts at SUNY New Paltz. Once again, I could only attend as a part-time student and was accepted in the Printmaking Department. In 2013 I received my Bachelor of Fine Arts from SUNY New Paltz at age 60. It was all so much fun, and I began to realize that I needed art to balance my life finding that the work helped me through life’s challenges.

Recently, my work has embraced the creative practice of papermaking and indigo dyeing. While not a typical technique in printmaking, I appreciate the mark making correlation between the two. The technique is inspired by the Japanese method of dying cloth called Shibori. A mix of kozo, abaca or cotton pulp fibers are used to create my paper matrix. Each piece is then either folded, wrapped, tied, clamped or held, often the organic matter is then wrapped or embedded into the paper. A vat of indigo dye is prepared and the paper wraps are slowly dipped under the dye solution, all the while the artist monitors how the paper absorbs the color. Each dyed piece is distinct which allows intuitive abstract assemblages to be formed.

Using my hands to generate any creative endeavor is a continued source of artistic nourishment. Regularly, the work responds to my state of mind, this body of work emphases that. Of late that involves persistent thoughts of how differently individuals absorb life, love and loss. In this series the act of absorbing is symbolic.

Now a grandmother, my grandchildren love to visit ‘“Nanny’s Shop” where I often listen to opera, they march right to my speakers and request, you guessed it, “Nanny play Opera” and my history repeats itself. Having my own studio space affords me the opportunity to have upwards of four projects going on at the same time. It has become my magnet, a place not only to create, but also a place to switch mental gears, lower my shoulders, exhale and explore all the many works swirling in my head. What a lifelong gift to explore.

Presently, I work at the Woodstock School of Art, assisting and sharing my passion for the art of making prints. The Hudson Valley has many creative havens. Two in particular, the Woodstock School of Art and the Women’s Studio Workshop, support women artist and are resources of inspiration and renewal. These havens strengthen us all in our commitment to the arts.