ARTIST STATEMENT Working ProcessThere are a wide range of artistic influences that inform my paintings including modernist and abstract expressionist art. But it is my graduate coursework—in environmental toxicology, textiles, and the fast fashion industry—that play a primary role. Mid-century American designers, Japanese Sashiko hand sewing, and Shibori dye techniques have reinforced my love of minimalism and expressive paint application. They have inspired me to paint and sew on unstretched canvas and to incorporate other artmaking techniques. These include collage and printmaking, which enhance the expressive potential of the cloth. Similar to the Shibori dye process, the removal of an art medium is as important as its application in my work. As a result, my paintings are constructed, deconstructed, and reconstructed through a series of actions and reactions that rely heavily on intuition and subsequent choices. This includes adding and removing pigment and unstretching and restretching the canvas. Hand stitching and fabric collage elements also play a role. I design the cloth collage patterns on the computer using cropped digital images of data from medical science journals. After reversing the final pattern image, I print it on heat transfer paper. This paper allows me to apply the patterns to cotton fabric, which I cut into shapes and sew on the canvas. The creative challenge is knowing when to stop sewing, cutting, and painting—identifying the beauty of the unexpected and embracing it. ContentAnimal and plant forms are often interwoven with the cloth, thread, and paint. These subjects symbolize my concern with the ecological crisis in what is considered to be a new geological epoch. Industry incentives and biased oversight have created an over-abundance of invisible pollution—teratogenic, endocrine disrupting chemicals in our soil, water, air, and bodies. Birds, especially the canary, are powerful symbols in a world where chronic disease is the norm and natural is not. In the past, the songbirds held a special place in the mining industry—they were used as barometers for air quality. If dangerous gases leaked into the mine, the gas would kill the canary before killing the miners—a warning to leave the tunnels. This gives the bird connotations of testing and sacrifice—characteristic references which have stuck. In a wider interpretation, being a canary is to be a subject in an experiment relating to changes in the environment. Many believe that we humans (especially our children) are modern-day canaries—subjects of a global experiment in the Anthropocene. I refer to this as Canary Concepts—the focus of my dissertation study. While I aspire to make paintings that are appealing, it is my hope the pictures inspire connections with the natural world and its relationship with industry and our health. Ecological artist, Chris Jordan stated:One powerful elixir is beauty. There is nothing quite like beauty. When you bring beauty and grief together, you can’t look at it, because it’s so sad—and you can’t look away, because it’ so beautiful, It’s a moment of being transfixed, and the key is turned in the lock (2013).