Artist Statement

I have been researching my family history for many years, and several years ago acquired three family photo albums from the early 1900’s. I wondered how I could somehow use those photos in my art and began first with collage, layering the antique photos with line drawings, city maps and other images, and merged them with my new photos. Instantly I knew that I wanted the work to have a more ethereal effect, and I started printing the photos on tracing paper to allow the layers to peek through. This is when I began my journey in what I call art and ancestry. I try to capture a sense of wonder that makes the viewer wonder as well. Who are the people, or what happened within these walls? 

After working in collage for several years, I went back to my first love, drawing. I draw from my photos using both graphite and colored pencil and different drawing surfaces depending on the feeling I am trying to evoke. Because pencil drawing is labor intensive, I spend a great deal of time planning my ideas beginning with my own photos, which go through a process of cropping, lighting, color selection and mood changes, with an eye on how I will incorporate the antique photos, and finally meticulously rendered with pencil. I am a storyteller and I invite the viewer to join me on the visual journey. A gallery owner wonderfully described my work as “…something both edgy and simultaneously comforting. It leaves us with our imaginations reeling, a sense of delight ignited, and a connection to the past renewed.”