In The End, 2017

Mixed media collage, 8" x 8" (unframed); 21" x 17" (framed)

Courtesy of the artist

As a mixed media collage artist my work derives from the process of gathering, collecting, and exploring visual and metaphorical connections. My work, which is primarily abstract imagery on panels and paper, begins with applying paint onto pages from found printed material. I paint, cut, layer, arrange and paste the assorted parts, thus transforming their original context into another visual language.

The abstract imagery of my work is inspired by grids, language and text; as well as architecture, engineering diagrams, and the facets of minerals. I am influenced by the mystery of the intuitive process and reflect on a quote by Kandinsky, "there is always an 'and'". For me that speaks of approaching the art process from a place of not knowing.

These mixed-media collages are fashioned from many repetitive cut strips of old ledgers, lined notebooks, and snippets of printed text from discarded books. The form is very linear and horizontal, similar to that of writing. My creative process, which is spontaneous, nonverbal, and subconscious, is revealed as I develop an unknown language of mark making, and making visible the armatures and hidden structures of things and ideas.

The French philosopher Jacques Derrida wrote about the power of the "presence of absence". This concept of not knowing describes my meditative process in which I create subtle, private, and intuitive based imagery.