In “No Outward Sign,” there is at once a need to control and an inability to do so. The back and front of the painting is in play.  Every time a new window is cut and the reverse side comes to the front, there is a new visual problem or challenge. The action of making this piece became a parallel action to my anxieties; sorting through the information and misinformation at the beginning of the pandemic and trying to arrive at a balance of knowledge, action and expression.

As the second large piece I made in quarantine, “Turning Joy” became a record of coming to terms with the enormity of the situation. The action of the painting still is a matter of digging, organizing, and understanding things visible and invisible, accurate and inaccurate, anticipated and not. As with the others, the microscopic and macroscopic scale of the imagery plays to the event. During this painting, I found myself surprisingly lost in the action of turning over the paper and feeling a certain power of clarity.

As the third large piece made during the quarantine, “ Covid Conspirator” became a surrender of sorts to the conditions of the pandemic. The paper was originally a different painting that I repurposed which felt appropriate to the insular practice of making these particular works at this time. After making “Turning Joy”, I felt guilt for having my immersion in the work bringing me to a joyful moment. This time I accepted the pandemic as a partner. The same visual distress of control and un-control plays here, albeit more somberly and densely.

 
 
 
Statement about Side-eye, Pink-eye

The CoVid 19 pandemic, the spread of sickness and death brought with it a more insidious pathology; apathy. Apathy of certain segments of the white population who believe their freedom was more important than the lives of people around them. Sitting in the unenviable demographic of persons more susceptible to contracting the virus as an African-American, I balked at the cavalier attitudes of my white counterparts and the disregard for my life and the lives of people that I hold dear.

Sitting in this fuge, I began to visualize the process of the disease, the physical warning signs of the illness as reported in the initial phases of the pandemic. Pink-eye. Pink-eye with all its social connotations, the stigma, and the evidence of the virus taking hold. The natural combination of the side-eye with the pink-eye speaks to the disgust, anger, exhaustion, and incredulity of women of color regarding the social and racial ills of this country. The spark in creating this segment of the series was in direct response to the pandemic in conjunction with the murders of African-American men and women at the hands of police and white “vigilantes.”

I reached out to women of color in my personal and artistic circles and requested a selfie with the side-eye as a prominent feature. I painted each subject’s likeness, studying their features and what they were telling me behind their eyes. There was so much pain, anger and to-the bone fatigue of all the machinations of institutionalized racism swimming in their eyes. I painted them, adding contour and meaning, leaving the introduction of the pink to their eyes for last as a closing statement of all the elements that can kill us, yet bond us in an unbreakable sisterhood.

 
 
 
Statement about Faux Forest
Being an artist who often works with allocation and detritus I am
always very conscious of my own carbon footprint. This installation
uses no glues, paints, or extra hardware and I love that!
At the same time, the image looks similar to a natural forest, yet it
really shows us just how much ‘stuff’ we consume and throw away.
I am fascinated with our ability to cherish an object and then later,
deem it useless.