About
I am a multidisciplinary artist whose focus is the natural world. Working intuitively, I use an open range of media to develop bodies of work, including ongoing painting journals (ongoing since 1992), salt paintings and drawings (2013-current), floating light sculptures (2013), time-lapse photography and video (2010), body drawings (1995-1997), and diary drawings and paintings (1992-1994).
Water became my primary media after I started my painting journals in 1992. In them, I developed a non-linear way of working, taking my lead and leaving the final outcome in part to the elements, to chance, and to time. The practice of working with water in the journals led to making art in partnership with the environment, including rain, heat, and cold, while marking the passage of time. Since 2010, I work in partnership with nature – at times setting up ‘situations’ in which natural elements interact, and working with that outcome. The ecological history of the oceans is the source of my current work. I draw with a hyper-saturated salt solution, and work with the salt crystals that grow as the water evaporates.
I live and work in Austin, Texas. My BFA is in painting from the Maryland Institute, College of Art, and my MFA is in Painting/Printmaking from the Rhode Island School of Design. I have worked in art related fields as the Director of School 33 Art Center in Baltimore, a curator at the Montserrat School of Art, a writer as the lead visual arts critic for the Austin American-Statesman, and as a professor of studio art and art history at Austin Community College. In Austin, I founded Look See Productions, which occasionally organizes thematic exhibitions.
Photo by VLM