2023 was both an ending and a beginning. A transition. A cycle of disfunction going back generations now firmly broken. Acutely aware of what this has cost – demanded – and still requires - of me, and I find myself wondering if it is worth it. Seeing my - now adult – children thrive, and my answer is yes. Witnessing the shift in people who have joined my workshops, and my answer is yes. Noticing the way people respond to my art, and my answer is yes.

I have always considered art as something I do, and artist as a state of being. I paint. For me, painting is a way of seeing, understanding, and being in the world. Painting – as with all the arts – is a language we share. One that has been passed down through generations, across cultures, and stored in our bodies. A language that is felt, sensed. It is visual, tactile, kinetic, while deeply entrenched in history, culture, place, and time.

As my understanding becomes more nuanced, and my perceptions shift, so does my painting.

Reflecting on my works these last 10 years, I see my earlier paintings – ‘echoes’ as I called them then - were one dimensional, a response to a singular emotion. I do not have the painterly words to describe what it is I do, however the musician in me likens my early paintings to single musical ‘notes’.  As I started to slow down, deliberately responding to a specific emotion over time, my painting became more nuanced – ‘chords’ if you like. My larger works – journeys through emotions - resemble musical ‘scales’, while my more recent works - which are playful and quite willful experiments - I equate with ‘melodies’.

2024

A shift – dissolving the boundaries between I, We, Us.

I am embarking on an in-depth study of feminine energy, the female psyche, lost wisdoms, and redressing the balance between the masculine and feminine energies in society, a balance I strongly believe we need to move humanity forward in a sustainable way.

Again I do not have the painterly words, I just know that increasingly my painting practice is moving away from singular ‘notes’ and ‘melodies’ as I strive to create multilayered, multifaceted, multisensory ‘symphonies’ – a body of voices - performative painting in and of itself.