Artist Statement

Much of my current work is inspired by six months spent in Brazil on a Fulbright Fellowship.
I paint abstract, decorative, mandala-like or mandala inspired paintings that metaphorically emulate the vitality of life force. I create bulging, volumetric spheres woven within a decorated, layered realm of shimmering light and saturated color. When I contemplate the energy of life force I think of cells and cell divisions, the universe forming itself out of dust, seeds blooming into plants, all which tend to emerge jewel-like, diaphanous, seductive and playful.
Nature constantly strives to seduce in order to propagate itself. Patterning and repetition is endemic in natural forms. I used to speculate that my love of pattern and design found its roots in my Asian sensibility. Now I believe that on a very basic level, the human, and possibly all living organisms nervous systems respond organically to patternmaking. I draw my designs from a variety of traditional sources, both Eastern and Western. I am interested in blending formal concerns of pattern and design while referencing broadly a variety of things – the cosmos, cells, organs, brocades, lace, jewelry, botany. I am interested in having the viewer contemplate tensions – micro vs. macro, natural vs. manmade, outward vs. inward, force vs. resistance, and what wants to exist vs. the forces that want to control existence.