work evolved from my writing or writing collaborations
I often do exploratory writing before I create something so probably al of my work comes from writing but these pieces emerged from written poems, poem fragments, stories and in a few cases, collaborations with other writers.
what lies between
mixed media triptych on wood panels : plaster, acrylic, pencil
each piece 12 x 12 in. total: 12 x 36 inches
from a poem in development:
raven speaks iridescent words of longing / silvered words of growing / she walks by the ocean / turning over stones & words /
for what lies between /
flotsam of dreams / jetsam of philosophy & song / raven looks for the pattern that binds / beach stone to word to story /
she builds a storyline
this warming promise
past remains
mixed media on cradled board: acrylic, papers, pencil crayon, pastel -20x20x1.5 in.
Part of the Palimpsest - The Not so Blank Slate art show at Metchosin Art Pod in 2024 and Juror's choice award winner
Artist Statement: The title "past remains" refers to memory and its fluidity. For the past four years I've been witnessing my mother's transformation in personality and expression as her dementia has deepened. An additional influence is Sarah McLachlan's "I will Remember You" which rises in my memory when I explore the feeling and expression of "remembering".
lune, rising
mixed media on cradled board: acrylic, papers, ink - 14x14x1.75 inches
Goldfinch Arts Centre put out a call for reimagined book cover art. I chose to submit a piece for a book I am working on, a collection of poems that feature or involve the moon. Word association had me riffing on "moon" and I soon found the rhyming "loon" and "lune". "Lune" is French for moon and lune in geometry involves a crescent shaped figure bounded by two arcs of circles or more simply, a crescent shape. Then again, "lunes" is an old word associated with fits of madness (make of that what you will). The images in the piece developed intuitively including the jumble of letters from the poems I"m working on - all forming and rising up. From a work in progress: moon song/calls to the wild in us/highlights the pulse/pulls us closer/to sync with a chorus of stars
in hand
mixed media on cradled board: acrylic, papers, ink
24x24x.1.5 inches
from the poem "in hand" from my chapbook on location - poems from Vancouver Island
A few lines from the poem's centre:
out of years of compost and ferment
original ink stains my fingertips
what is in hand for me
a disturbance of strangers voicing
what I could have said
a book without
my name or with
if not me who writes
the next line if not me
who approaches
a summer place to gather
mixed media on cradled board: acrylic, plaster, pencil crayons, ink
20x20x1.5 inches
Inspired by an excerpt of "Les Quâtres Saisons, Salt Spring Island, Chouan" by C.E.M. Winstanley, from her book Round the Bend & Other Places - poems from here and from away.
From a collaboration of artists and writers with Sooke Arts Council and Sooke Writers' Collective: "Poetics: Word & Art"