Chance Meetings
I am generally a very open person. My family is always amazed at the intimate details complete strangers share with me about their lives. Some amazing opportunities have come my way just by happenstance, or fate as you will, from being open.
One summer afternoon in 2014, shortly after I had moved back to NYC, I found myself on an LIRR platform, trying to figure out which platform was for trains going into NYC and which were going out to the end of Long Island. There was no one around to ask, the ticket window was closed. An interesting man, dressed in cargo shorts, a tee shirt and a ball cap that said, “JERK” across the front walked onto the platform, (I later discovered the street artist, “Incarcerated Jerkface”) hence the cap. He had a twinkle in his eye, a waxed handlebar mustache and was carrying some canvas bags. I decided to ask him if I was in the right place. He answered in an Irish brogue that indeed I was on the platform heading to NYC. We started talking and he told me that he was heading to Bushwick, Brooklyn to work on a mural for The Bushwick Collective, and showed me all the cans of spray paint in his bags. Solus was my personal introduction to Street Art. His visual social commentary is concise and on target and his playful sense of humor draws you into his world and makes you want to see what else he has to say. That chance meeting opened my eyes to all the street art around me and I was hooked.
Flowers
I wanted to work with spray paint and on a larger scale. The street is a gritty place so I used that influence by spray painting on old construction board, then using markers and oil crayons for more definition. I worked in the stairwell in my building which was being renovated so there was lots of construction there at the time. Certainly not ideal but super
After I moved to San Francisco a bit later, I converted the garage into my outdoor studio. I started small and found I liked thinking about the directional light that I could create within each piece.
Once I got the feel of it, I wanted to work bigger so found some steel at Home Depot and did a series of large flowers, experimenting with different techniques. Big Red has the light from within. I like layering the colors in a veil, masking the edges and experimenting with different nozzles to get different effects.
Delphinium, (above), can be hung vertically or horizontally. A lot of time when I am working on a composition, I flip the panel around to make sure it is balance, especially in more abstract works. Carmen, (below), has layers of color to create luminosity and vibrance.
I really liked the vibrant brights but wanted something a bit softer in dessert colors to sell in the high desert of Park City, Utah. I made Metamorphosis and Spiraling Fauna as companion pieces. The former is a large orchid like flower and the latter a compilation of smaller shapes weaving through one another.
Women
I am a huge fan of Richard Hambleton, “The Godfather of Street Art”! Hambleton’s Shadowman lurks, dances, jumps and falls all over buildings in NYC. It is incredible how he conveyed so much of what that shadowman was feeling in a few large brushstrokes.
My alter-ego, shadow woman is a super heroine, inspired by the need to move forward and empower others, even when the situation looks bleak. I very much believe in the power of one and that by modeling the change we hope to see, this action will inspire others to take ownership of the problems we face and help.