Twists and Turns
I am a painter working primarily in oil on canvas, but also acrylic and multimedia on paper and fabric. My training in drawing and painting began during my undergraduate studies, in which I focused on fashion and textile design. Inspirations? Camile Claudel, Calvin Klein, Elizabeth Peyton, Eric Fischl, Anna Wintour, Walker Evans, Alice Neel, Linda Nochlin, and Luc Tuymans. I continued with my art while working in the fashion world in New York and as a costume designer in the movie industry. My experience in both of these areas helped reinforce my training in color, design, patterns, and draftsmanship. To this day, whenever I look at a portrait whether by Van Eyck, Alice Neel, or Elizabeth Peyton, I invariably (and possibly involuntarily) check the outfit first. Beginning in 2007, I began to focus on more conceptual and formal matters in my work. The Fresh Eyes, Horse/Man, and Skin Dipping series are the product of this more recent turn in my art.
We all get that initial push somewhere. My father was an artist: he began with medical illustrations, graduated to making illustrations of illustrations by Jean-Jacques Audubon, but spent the bulk of his life drawing a map, never finished, of the inner vertices of the human heart. Most of his work therefore ended up in cardiology journals. Truly. My mother is a psychologist. Both continue to inspire me each time that I pick up a brush
