Artist Statement

As an identical twin, my desire to distinguish myself from my sister, inspired me to do a series of art projects in which I attempted to show our differences. This led me to a longstanding interest in representation, in how to depict likenesses and express qualities beyond the immediate, superficial appearance of people, places and things. I do this through the use of light and shadow, gesture, placement, and color. I see my work as a continuation of the spirit long shared with artists throughout history that perceives the spectacle and beauty of the common and everyday. My current range of subject matter is drawn from my day-to-day experiences, encounters, and whatever visually moves me. Often it falls into traditional subjects such as portraiture, figure drawing, still life, landscape, interiors, animals, and genre scenes. My subjects may be personal and intimate or formal and impersonal, depending on which is greater: my interest in the subject or the process at the time. By confining myself to subjects accessible to me, such as objects I possess or places I visit or pass through, I aim to maintain some form of originality and individual expression in my work by showing my own point-of-view, rooted in my hope to share and elevate the enduring qualities and beauty discovered in the everyday.

I work in drawing, painting and photography, with occasional forays into collage, mixed media, and artist books, but printmaking is my first love and my go-to medium. The visceral, textural qualities in each printmaking medium (such as woodcut, etching and aquatint, lithography and screenprinting), and the ability to bring out various nuances in meaning and moods from a single image by changing variables such as ink color, paper, and pressure, ultimately draws me to the printmaking media.