recent works

bow to the blank

mixed media assemblage: driftwood, air dry clay, acrylic paint, coloured pencils
17 x 7 x 6 inches

Now showing at The Metchosin ArtPod until December 21st. The WHITElight show invited artists to explore the colour white in all its manifestations. To look at white not only as an inclusive space on the colour spectrum, but also as a metaphor, material, and mood.

I imagined many aspects of white but the thing I kept coming back to was the blank page and the blank canvas - and how I might confront the blankness. In writing about it I riffed: White is the unknown, white is a fog curdling the mind - it demands intention. "bow to the blank" represents the fog and fear of the unknown that often precedes the creative process. The blank face cannot avoid what is rising within. From fog, a mist of cloud and attitude. Bowing to the blank, that white unknown, provides a way through.

talisman for a journey

mixed media: driftwood, air dry clay, copper, aluminum wire, waxed linen thread, pencil crayon, acrylic
16 in. high x 3 in. wide x 5 in. deep

Presented at the Metchosin ArtPod show Talisman
SOLD

Artist Statement:
The shape of a woman’s journey is a spiral ~ Sharon Blackie
I have had many talismans throughout the years - simple ones I collected like a multi-coloured stone in my pocket, a glass bead, a rusty key - each one serving a function of reminder and empowerment. "talisman for a journey" comes from my collection of thoughts and ideas, some marked and shaped on a found piece of driftwood. By adding a sculpted bird's head and spirals, the driftwood has taken on the elevated job of talisman for a journey. The bird stands in the present, in the here & now, yet it spirals, moving out of yesterday through today and into tomorrow. A journey we repeat.

talisman for remembering

assemblage of found driftwood (hoarded for years) with driftwood base, shaped and stamped copper elements, acrylic and coloured pencils
15.5 in. high x 15 in. wide x 4in. deep

We all have stories - it's what we're made of. The "talisman for remembering" was created from earth elements of wood (shaped by water) and copper (shaped by fire) - giving a winged shape to memory. Letters dangle but hang on for the journey, reminding us that we can build our memories, word by word.

This piece is part of a talisman series I'm currently working on. It nicely overlaps with my series work on memory and remembering.

memory sometimes

mixed media on cradled board: acrylic, plaster, pencil crayon - 24x24x1.5 in.

Presented at the Metchosin ArtPod show Fleeting — Exalting the Ephemeral

Artist Statement: In response to my mother's ongoing dementia and to my own aging I have been exploring memory and what it is to remember. There is an ethereal quality to memory, to what we store in our minds and bodies. Things rise to the surface of our awareness then slowly, or sometimes rapidly, disintegrate. In "memory sometimes" a swirl of blue fog is a backdrop to the binary code for the word "memory". Overlaid on this, a few memories struggle to the surface. Binary code has a long history and is associated with information storage. How is our memory stored? Can some colour, texture and pattern be enough to store it? How can it be retrieved? In a short poem called "memory sometimes", I explore what it is to be surrounded by a new, beautiful landscape and my efforts to save the feelings and connection I have to it. It begins: "I remember last week's view out the window. the blue habit of it. how it changes - fluid as what it contains". I continue to explore.

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

Recent experiments and works with mixed media - in redevelopment

bow to the blank

talisman for a journey

talisman for remembering

memory sometimes

past remains

wild woman comes to talk

origin story 1

lune, rising

in hand

a summer place to gather