In all of my work I question how individuals and groups define themselves and relate to each other. I focus on particular societal structures such as sports teams, game fields and performance spaces. I am always interested in ranges of gender expression. How do viewers’ subjective positions affect what they see?
In my ‘dance series’, I paint couples who defy the traditional roles and aesthetics of ballroom dance. I depict moments of feminine strength and leadership, masculine grace and flexibility. By disrupting traditional roles, I envision alternative modes of expression for dancers of all genders. The larger ‘dance series’ paintings use a border-and-center motif to challenge a static understanding of place. I push the narratives to the margins of the paintings. The large abstract centers serve as spaces for contemplation; they are mirrors, portals, and walls. Around the edges of the paintings, dancers alternate with glimpses of performance spaces in various levels of abstraction— a floor, a light show, a fog machine. The scale of the paintings encourages viewers to consider the spaces they occupy and the ways in which the structures we inhabit affect our behavior.
In ‘frames & fields’, female and androgynous athletes merge with their playing fields. The rectangle of the soccer field is compressed through different viewpoints into long strips of paper, which, when tacked onto a wall, highlight the architecture of the room, as in ‘exit field’, or ring the edge of a wall-sized canvas, as in ‘tantrum field’. I am drawn to the imperfection of the soccer field, which is both organic and geometric—its uneven surface marred by bare patches and cleat marks, yet bounded by a straight white line. I am interested in the physicality of paint as mud and the surface of the painting as a field. The works on paper from this series operate in the space between painting and drawing. Colorful washes of diluted oil paint interweave with linear imagery. Wandering lines create links between remembered or imagined moments.