Photo by John Noonan

Photo by Muck McAuliffe My work is about spilling, the spilling open of myself - my colors and questions. I use my "mistakes" - I follow where they may take me. I like to use what I find - what is left over, unused. My art supplies are remnants, faded and forgotten letters, table clothes, felt, wallpaper, drawer lining, photographs, paper doll cut-outs, maps, fabric, vinyl records, and sheets of music once played and heard - now left quiet. I am patching and piecing a life hooked together, yet partially obscured, with masking tape, ribbon, thread, varnish, and paper clips. I draw ink faces that are the Ladies just under the surface, not laughing loudly for attention. But holding still for all that is felt and not heard. Those faces appear large on wood panels, tiny in my traveling journals, and wall-sized, dripping with ink, on city streets. My processes include collage, bricolage, calligraphic mark-making, "painting" with the colors of fabric, and drawing on dresses with ribbons and thread. I am making room-filled installations with both wall paintings extending up to 12 feet high, and intimate artist books, assemblages, and dresses. Both the expressive, large gesture and the delicate stitch or line function as vessels that barely contain an overflow of images and thoughts.