ARTIST STATEMENTThe marks I make are very intuitive and playful. As I work I encourage the child in me to reinvent the delight of repeating the cadence in the mark making that begins my work with water soluble graphite. I wash over the marks carefully to save shapes and more aggressively to lessen their impact. Layers of color talk to and influence each other. The balance between warm and cool, the rhythm that is created as a color travels through the work. New colors added or taken away change all the relationships .The way an accidental drip leads to the next large mark.Mixed signals and ambiguity are part of my process of creating.The acrylic paintings on board use a "device", Jasper John's term, a box lid that I use as a stencil to build an pattern and rhythm, an undercurrent for beginning my work. The device is cardboard and creates semi-regular rectangular shapes depending on my focus and intention during the drawing process. The marks are made with water soluble graphite which will move and bleed when the next layer of paint goes over it depending on the brush I use and pressure I apply. As a painter I am aware of the size of me and I like to use marks or formats that relate to my frame. The tools (brush,graphite etc.) that I make "art" with are kind of "snap on" equipment for the main frame, my body that has the energy and strength and awareness to make cognitive decisions that create by selection and elimination.SELECTED EXHIBITIONS2016 Water STreet Gallery, Douglas, MI2012 - Black Rock Arts Center, Above and Below2011 - Levine School of Music, New Work2010, 2003 - Target Gallery, International Juried Exhibition of female artists2009 - Touchstone Gallery, Washington, DC2009 - Oerth Gallery, Aleandria, VA2009 - Thor Gallery, Colonial Beach, VAEDUCATION1972 BA University of Louisville 19722013 Golden Artist Educator Program