Artist Statement

The conversation between the accidental and the intentional guides my mixed media collage work. Accidental materials arrive by chance, such as, commercially-made papers, letters, printed text and images, ribbons, wire, fabric.

The intentional materials are specifically created, for example, hand-painted papers, my own photography, original drawings and text, and image transfers. Chance plays a large part in how the elements are combined. The dominant medium is acrylic paint along with various acrylic mediums and gels. Other various media, such as pencil, marker, crayon, charcoal and anything else that the work calls for, is added as the conversation develops.

Through several processes, painting, glazing, photographing, drawing, transfer techniques, simple printing methods, gluing, writing, stitching, etc. the work evolves, layer over layer over layer, into existence. Some pieces employ many processes and materials; others use only a few. But all the works spring from the same interaction between the accidental and the intentional; fortuitous mistakes are as essential as successfully controlled elements.