Life is a series of mostly ordinary moments. It is in those moments we find or create the pleasure of living. My paintings illuminate pleasurable scenes of everyday life, the elements of nature we bring into our domestic environments, special events that bring people together, cultural traditions, global patterns, the objects we use to make moments delightful and the sense of affection we develop for them. My work is characterized by built up layers of exposed materials including paper, fabric, ceramic stucco, glass bead and oil stick. The remaining textures of distressed layers hold a sense of history, as if the piece has lived a life of its own, in synch with the scenes they depict. I paint scenes that reveal the evidence of people gathering in humble ways to create exceptional moments in ordinary days.
I am an abstract painter and collage artist living in Boise, Idaho and working out of my studio in SpacePort artist collective located in Garden City Live-Work-Create District. I have exhibited paintings and performance art nationally and internationally for two decades. The diversity of my life experience heavily informs my work and the processes I use to make it. Raised in a ranching family of immigrant homesteaders and Basque sheepherders, I grew to love the textures of my rural surroundings, the oxidized metal of old machines, sun-baked wooden exteriors, the layers of peeling wallpaper and cracked paint left untouched in sheepherders’ wagons and rustic homes. I was fortunate to experience the social gatherings of families with rich cultural heritage and their own idiosyncratic traditions. In stark contrast I spent my formative adult years studying and working in major cities, Madrid, Tokyo, Paris and Conakry, West Africa. Again, I was intrigued by rich cultural practices and the textures of urban decay resulting from city grit and hustle . My work explores the ordinary settings and objects created by diverse people breaking from duties of the day to share in small but essential forms of momentary pleasure.
