A Trilogy of One Woman 2007

Using a process of deconstruction, old and recent unresolved work is torn and cut up, I then find the most engaging pieces and re-assemble them together with newly created drawings and paintings.

This process of collaging, cutting, tearing, sewing together, and re-constructing is a metaphor for the experience of my life. The completed works speak about slices of life reassembled.

The extraordinary tapestries of my life, are layered using metaphors and symbolism. The ladders are about the difficult climb through life, sometimes we slip back on the rungs of the ladder, only to begin the climb again, sometimes the ladders reach between heaven and earth. The rocking horse, represents the universal inner child, who is never quite healed. The image of the house, speaks about the power, and the secrets, within the family. I cut out shapes, in the canvas, or paper hinting at the missing parts of the emotional self.

Children’s wax crayons, black ink, cotton, old drawing pins, pencil, khoki pens and white acrylic gesso paint are the main mediums used, creating a simplicity and childlike appearance on the surface of the fragile paper and un-stretched raw canvas.

1995 was when I first left out the backgrounds in my drawings, creating a feeling of a silent empty void. Today, the white background has become symbolic of my drawings, it speaks of a stillness, a quietude in my life. A deep sense of feeling grounded.

My work emerges through play, the accident the co-incidences of the surprise co-joining of two seemingly unrelated pieces of work. And so my story emerges in weird exaggerated truth.

“ART NO LESS THAN WISDOM, WAITS ON LIFE” Louise Bourgeois.