For as long as I can remember, I’ve had a passion for words and images in equal measure. Stories written were always accompanied by drawings; visual works always contained text in some form. In the former, the visual component allowed me to share my interpretation of the words; in the latter, words added a layer of meaning, and further, the words themselves are an intrinsic part of the visual pleasure of the piece, whether one reads them carefully, or not. As such, my work has followed a parallel interest in the fine arts and publishing fields. With an enduring passion for words and the book form, my work nearly always exhibits elements of “bookishness;” whether the end result is truly a book, an altered book, a wall piece, or a construction, all contain text to be read in some sequential or looping fashion.
My personal work is a distillation of my varied training and experience in the fields of book publishing and the fine and applied arts, incorporating elements of design, text, and narrative visual components. My parallel career tracks in publishing and art have at times intersected and overlapped, especially in recent years, as my conventionally published works show the influence of artists’ books, and my personal work employs more digital processes and becomes ever more text-driven.
Recent bodies of work use construction, collage, and written word as a form of self-exploration. Mixed media assemblages (which I like to call “readable objects”), altered books, and artist’s books aspire to create a sense of identification with the viewer, illuminating universal themes of inner life: self-doubt, the conflicted ego, the pursuit of ones’ place in the world, and regret.
In addition, much of my current work looks at the place of women in modern culture through the use of found images from different eras. There is a particular emphasis on women’s roles, cultural expectations, and how language is used to form such expectations. My aim is to examine the assumptions made by these depictions, and attempt to overturn them, often with irony or humor. As with more autobiographical works, this body of work explores the personal-as-universal as it relates to imagery and language of the female experience.