Until my 6th year of school my family and I lived in a small tar paper house that was built in a day by my Dad’s friends as a wedding present. It had a living room, a kitchen and two bedrooms for a family of 6. The house was rough on the inside with no insulation and heated by a woodstove. In our minds it was a palace and a home. I miss that house still. There has never been a house as grand or a kitchen so warm.
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The Big Elk river runs like a silver thread through my veins and Tiger Mountain chimes my heart.
My art speaks to these two worlds, my first home and my second. In all my work I turn personal history into fables where animals walk upright and speak in the voices of my friends and family. They relate their lives in small dramas – sometimes they make sense and sometimes they do not.
Ravens and rabbits, elephants and mice carry on complex relationships often reversing roles, sometimes friends, sometimes lovers, often enemies. Always in flux.
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2 hours of review and discussion of 2 people’s work and 2 hours of follow-up, working in my studio.
A maximum of 2 people (one hour per person) for this unique opportunity to meet and discuss one of your projects in a supportive atmosphere – and also be of help when discussing the other person’s work.
When I start an accordion book piece I usually gather several pieces of paper with drawings or collages that I have lying around in the studio and start gluing them together, letting chance dictate how the story develops.
After the pages are glued and the long strip is laid out I start looking for associations and intuitively begin filling in the gaps with more drawings, collage and color.
When I was younger, in my 20s, I liked to draw this way. The effect was always compelling and somewhat unpredictable.
I would begin by laying a piece of blank paper on a piece of Plexiglas that is covered in printing ink and draw on the paper with a pencil or the end of a paint brush. The pressure from the pencil would pick up the ink and create a fuzzy etching-like line on the other side of the paper. By adding light pressure from the palm of your hand or finger you can add and modulate areas of tone and shadow.
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