“All our silences in the face of racist assault are acts of complicity.” — Bell Hooks |
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https://youtu.be/bN5oQIAgw7E
Artist Statement
I create because it is the way I assimilate information. I create to find stillness from the noise my mind creates. Form through clay, ink, paint, pencil, paper are the tools I choose to make sense of how to fit into this world.
As a young child, growing up with vagabond hippies, moving from America to India and back again, living in the forest, trailing after spiritual leaders of the ’70s, I was influenced by ceremony, ritual, pattern. Then as an adult, living in Singapore, Shanghai and traveling to neighboring countries, I was further connected to humans from all walks of life. I was struck by the beauty of the physical expression of spiritual practice - the gold squares rubbed on statues of deities in Thailand. I found beauty in the simplicity of an alleyway full of hanging colorful laundry and wrinkled oldsters playing mahjong. To me, art is surrender, it is a connection to the inner stillness that only comes when I let go of the persona of self. I enter into a sliver of time where I am fully present - the quiet bliss of the zone - where time stands still, spirit takes over. What excites me is round circles against straight lines, sundown that illuminates the veins of a leaf, the new life of tadpoles wriggling in pockets of water. Color, light, texture - nature is my inspiration and grounds me. I’m particularly drawn to the shapes and styles of the Art Nouveau movement. I love the curves, asymmetrical forms, and intense colors. When creating, I think it’s important to release judgment and the need to be perfect. I prefer to focus on the process of allowing things to happen organically. |
“The main thing is to be moved, to love, to hope, to tremble, to live.” – Auguste Rodin |
top right - me as a baby with my dad -
bottom right -me-latch key kid-San Francisco, CA- |