About Me
My work begins with a fragment of memory-the tick of a clock, a door slamming, the smell of a room. These atmospheres suggest colours and gestures that I build in multiple layers using various pigments and collaged materials. I add and subtract, add and subtract, and wrestle with marks, sometimes for hours, sometimes for weeks, until a sense of order has emerged out of turmoil.
The many layers of experience that make up a life is what interests me, how chance and circumstances form our being and shapes who we are. Painting for me has become an opportunity to reflect on a life that has been busy, complex and tested. My hope is that the work conveys a positive energy, seeking harmony out of turmoil, providing a thought-provoking and exciting visual encounter.
Self-expression varies for those who feel deeply and experience more than can be expressed in words.
As a child my favourite place was visiting my grandparents in Oklahoma, USA and trotting after my grandmother asking her ‘What can I make’? Creativity has always permeated my life in various forms but was not something I had the confidence or time to wholly pursue.
I was born in Oklahoma USA but raised on the east coast of America. I was the first of three girls, but our family life was chaotic, as we moved around the state a lot. Life was often filled with turmoil, abuse, and what developed was a broken and dysfunctional family environment. As I entered adulthood, I pursued a career in nursing with various nursing and management roles. In my 40’s I had the opportunity to travel Europe with family and volunteer with a small organisation. In my travels I meant my late husband and together we visited many sites and cities, which afforded me a thrilling European culture. I immigrated 26 years ago to be with him in Scotland. After his death, it took me a long time to reorientate myself. I started painting alongside various business roles, I was engaged with for charities that were in financial straits. Looking back, I see that often in my working life I have been occupied with activities that shared elements of wrestling control from disorder.
I now live on the east coast of Scotland with my partner. Retirement has allowed me a period of intensive study in painting, out of which is emerging a practice of abstract works that reflect the events that have shaped my life. My hope is that this conveys a positive energy, an activity seeking harmony out of turmoil, that might chime with other people to providing a thought-provoking and engaging visual encounter.