...the trees were mirrored by the water and the wind knew them both. Video. 2023

A 'hub tree' or Mother Tree in Columbia, Maryland, 2021, Photograph on Aluminum panel 30"H x 20"W.

This photograph is of a 'Mother Tree' in a forest near my home.  The tree's girth is forty-two feet in diameter. My interest in trees has led me to read and research how scientists have changed our understanding of the interconnected community that exists between trees and other species, 'including forming kin relationships with their genetic relatives'* 

Trees establish a communication "network" in the soil between their roots and fungi in the soil. using mycorrhizal, as documented in the Mother Tree Project.*

'In mapping the fungal network, our research has shown that the biggest and oldest trees are the most connected nodes in the forest. These highly-connected hub trees, also known as Mother Trees, share their excess carbon and nitrogen through the mycorrhizal network with the understory seedlings, which can increase seedling survival. These Mother Trees in this way act as central hubs, communicating with the young seedlings around them. In a single forest, a Mother Tree can be connected to hundreds of other trees.'

*From-https://mothertreeproject.org/about-mother-trees-in-the-forest/

Tree skin, 2024. Acrylic on canvas, 6"H x 6"W.

I documented the bark of a centuries old tree in Chadds Ford, PA. The bark showed the same rings that are apparent when a tree is cut down and you see the growth rings in the trunk. Bark shows the same growth in the depth of its crevices. I love touching this bark.

Bend. 2023. Photograph.

Roots, Miami, Florida, 2023. Photograph on aluminum panel, 30"H x 24"W.

The Maw, 2024. Photograph on aluminum panel, 30"H x 20"W.

A tree stands with a gaping wound in the base of the trunk.

Totem, 2024. Photograph on aluminum panel. 30"H x 24"W.

A diseased, and blackened tree with no branches stands in the forest.

A three hundred foot tall oak, 2025. Photograph, on aluminum panel. 30"H x 20"W

A massive oak tree photographed at night. What do we know about the life of a tree? The shade it gives? The leaves that fall? The wood we take from it? The furniture, or paper pulp we make? What do we know about the life of this tree through the seasons?

Vine, 2023. Photograph on aluminum panel. 30"H x 24"W.

A thick vine hangs from a tree in the midst of a felled forest.

Winds in the palms on the shores of Lahaina, Hawaii. 2024, video.

Yellow boots and mud.  Photograph, 2017. 10"Hx8"W.

This image was photographed at the American Visionary Museum's Kinetic Sculpture Race in 2017.

Elevator security, 2019. Photograph, 14"Hx11"W.

Photographed at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.

Unfolding, 2018. Photograph.

Chris at Thanksgiving, 2017.  Photograph. 14"x11".

Boarman's at night, 2017.  Photograph on aluminum panel, 20"Hx 30"W.

This image recalls for me William Christenberry's effort to document the "disappearing South" in his hometown of Hale County, Alabama.  

Boarman's is a country story in Northern Howard County. This hand-painted sign sits in a small parking area in front of the store at the crossroads of Route 108 and Route 214.  The sign is repainted to change with the seasons.  Someday, Boarman's will make way for office buildings and strip malls.

Blue woman. Photograph on aluminum panel, 2017. 30”Hx20”W.

Taken at the Brooklyn Museum of Art.

Photograph, 20"H x 30"W.

A friend and I were driving down a street in Victoria, Canada, when I noticed these hedges.  

This was a moment for me when I recognized that one individual cared passionately enough about these hedges that their symmetry was perfectly maintained. I've trimmed hedges before. It isn't easy. These were sculptures unto themselves.

A man on the subway, New York, 2018.  Photograph, 30”Hx20”W.  

Taking this photograph was painful. The man appeared younger than fifty, he was exceptionally thin, he was weak and his nose was dripping. He repeatedly touched the hankerchief in his hand to his nose. The fingers were thin and delicate. I wondered what his life experiences were.

Girls, photograph. 2017, Variable size.

Made in China, 2017. Photograph, variable size.

Amsterdam, 2018. Oil on canvas, 8"H x 10"W.

Walking near a canal in Amsterdam in 2004, I saw a capsized boat.  It was classically constructed, not a flat bottom, but had a graceful hull with ribs arching from a central spine.  Most disturbing to me, it was abandoned.  I photographed the boat with the first cell phone I owned, and carried that image for more than fifteen years, before I painted it.  The image still resonates for me.

The Middle Passage, 1995. Mixed media on paper, 24"H x 24"W. 

This work was created during my studies at Howard. The composition is a birds-eye view of the 'Gold Coast' on the African continent, where enslaved Africans were imprisioned, and held for transport across the ocean to other continents.

Water surrounds the coast, and an historic diagram of the cross section of a slave ship reveals how human bodies were packed in side by side.  This diagram intersects the continent, and bloodied handprints are imposed on the painting indicating culpability for trafficking enslaves peoples.  Photocopies of dried orchid flowers are collaged onto the map representing future generations lost during the voyages.

Waterborne. 2019. Photograph on aluminum panel. 36"H x 30"W

This is from a series of one hundred photographs taken during sunset on a reflecting pool.  The mirrored surface undulated, continually changing, in a series of never-ending, mesmerizing patterns.

Just swimming. 2018. Oil on canvas, framed. 12”H x 9”W.

Water study, 2022. India ink and acrylic on paper. 50”H x 38”W. 

Redhead, 2018. Oil on canvas, 8”H x 10”W. SOLD.

Floating, 2019. Oil on canvas. 10"H x 8"W.  SOLD. 

Fat man, floating. 2019. Oil on canvas, 8"H x 10"W. 

Giclee prints of this painting are available on stretched canvas or printed on fine art paper in sizes the original size, up to 24"Hx30"W.   Examples of the large Giclee on canvas and on paper can be viewed in my studio. 

Reading, 2019. Oil on canvas. 8"Hx 10"W. 

Ladies at the hot springs, Canada, 2020. Oil on canvas, 9”H x 12”W.

Genetics/Memetics is an installation I developed for my second solo exhibition in Denver at Pirate Gallery.

The year is 1998, and the term ‘meme’ was not a commonly used word.

Detail: Genetics/Memetics, installed at Pirate Gallery, Denver, 1997.

The walls in the gallery were painted tomato red. Thirty six black and white large format printed velum panels, each measuring 13'Hx3'W, were hung edge to edge from the ceiling to the floor on the walls, forming a uniform wallpapered environment. Three baroque frames hung against the red wall displayed: 1) the head of the first cloned sheep, Dolly; 2) a mirror reflecting the viewer; 3) an drawing of chromosomes at the door into the gallery.

This installation was created to overwhelm viewers with scale, color and imagery, juxtaposing visual stimuli set in a gallery with solid tomato red walls. 

For this installation, I printed thirty six black and white large panels (format printed-each measuring 13'Hx3'W) and painted the gallery walls tomato red. 

The installation included a huge Zebra-man image with a jail built of rebar painted black, and an industrial table on which sat a vintage microscope and glass slides viewers could place under the microscope to read ironic koans in minuscule text.

Just Laughing. Big Women Series, 1997. 65"H x 60"W. Acrylic on canvas.

This is a painting of Anna Magnani, an Italian actress who lived life 'large'. In the painting  she's having a belly laugh. The sheer iridescent text on the canvas reads:

                 Mirth    Madness     Hysteria

Hysteria according to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition* “is a nervous affliction, occurring almost exclusively in women, in which the emotional and reflex excitability is exaggerated, and the will power correspondingly diminished, so that the patient loses control over the emotions..."

Man #1872. The Big Women Series, 1997.  

One of seven monochromatic paintings of men's eyes on unstretched canvas.

Not A Flower, The Big Women Series. Acrylic on canvas, 1997, 65"H x 60"W.

'Big Women’ exhibited at Pirate Gallery in Denver, Colorado. This over-sized painting (Not a Flower) has autobiographical text stenciled in thick pink impasto arranged in an inverted triangle over the image. The text reads:

As a child my mother dressed me in pink…

“surrender the pink” means relinquishing

your virtue.  At four I was pressed

into ballet lessons. At six, I was

a bride in a Tom Thumb wedding,

my brother was the groom. No one

questioned the incestuous nature of the

Ritual. By age thirteen

my boyish tendencies so

appalled my father, he

made mother enroll me

in “charm” school.

It was then

that I grasped

how deportment

would serve to

emphasize my

difference.

Man #189. Big Women Series, 12"x12", unstretched canvas, 1997.

One of seven monochromatic paintings of men's eyes on unstretched canvas.

The Big Women Series, One Cannot be Both - Feminine and Adult. 1997. Oil on Canvas, 65”Hx60”W.

This is an over-sized canvas taken from a press photo of Maria Callas. She was screaming back stage at La Scala after a process server handed her a notice to appear in court. The unrestrained rage on her face captured a private moment of pitched emotion which I understood at a visceral level. The transparent iridescent text stenciled on the painting reads:

One Cannot be Both,

Feminine and Adult

By this I mean that constricting your behavior to suit the cultural norm, your power to be authentically yourself is diminished.

Man #50655. Big Women Series, 12"x12" unstretched canvas, 1997.  

One of seven monochromatic paintings of men's eyes on unstretched canvas.

Being vs Seeming, Big Women Series, 1997. Acrylic on canvas, 65Hx60"W.

In this painting an over-sized breast with with a row of human sensory organs stacked on the side of the canvas.

Man #11. Big Women Series, 12"x12" unstretched canvas, 1997.  

One of seven monochromatic paintings of men's eyes on unstretched canvas.

Boy #402822. Big Women Series, 12"x12", unstretched canvas, 1997.  

One of seven monochromatic paintings of men's eyes on unstretched canvas.

Doll, The Big Women Series. Acrylic on canvas, 65"H x 60"W., 1997.

Transparent, iridescent text on this painting reads:

Doll.

No brain.  

No breath.

No juice.  

No life.

American Girl War, installed at Edge Gallery, Denver, Colorado, 1998.

The Colorado Council for the Arts awarded me a scholarship at Anderson Ranch in Snowmass, CO, to work with Jim Goldberg, author of Raised by Wolves and Philip Brookman, curator of New Media at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, in a collaborative workshop on 'Photographic Story-telling'.  The result was an autobiographical book of images developed for this installation at EDGE Gallery in Denver CO, 1998.

Detail: Acetate panels hang from the ceiling at the installation of American Girl War.

Autobiographical photographs from my childhood and adulthood were used to tell the story.  In my collection of fortune cookie 'fortunes' I used one that read, "Nothing is good or bad but by comparison" on the title panel. For me, this articulated a profound inequity that I experienced in our family due to my gender.   This installation was cathartic for me as the story of how gender is shaped by culture and family..

American Girl War, installed at Edge Gallery, Denver, Colorado, 1998.

I am known to document my life in photography, and here is photograph of me sobbing uncontrollably from a nightmare in which I discovered my dead brother. He was laid out on a dining room table in my grandparents house.covered by a white sheet. In the dream, I touched his foot, which was cold, and I realized he was dead. The grief of that experience startled me, and I woke up sobbing. This photograph captured that moment, which I never wanted to forget.

Detail: Acetate panels hang from the ceiling at the installation of American Girl War.

After the Colorado Council for the Arts awarded me a scholarship at Anderson Ranch in Snowmass, CO, to work with Jim Goldberg, and Philip Brookman, in their workshop 'Photographic Story-telling'.  I created an autobiographical book of images which I used for this installation at EDGE gallery in Denver.

Detail: Acetate panels hang for the installation of American Girl War.

These vinyl panels, juxtapose a print advertising image of the Maidenform (bra) woman, while the second is a self portrait, unencumbered by restrictive shapers.

Little Patti, 2011, mixed media photo collage on paper.

The child is six years old in this photograph.  Where is her find place in the universe? What rules have been set for her life by her family, by the culture? Will charm school classes be in her future?

Screaming Woman, 1980. 16"H x 12"W.  Mixed media on paper.

Media Assault, mixed media on paper, 1994. 50"H x 38"W.

This work is not part of the American Girl War installation.

Fractured, 1989.

Pencil drawing of a hand pushing toward a face. Painted shards are fracturing out from the center.

Holding the Sacred, Floating Bronze Vessel, 1992. 50"H x 38"W.  Acrylic on paper. 

I understood through my metaphysical studies that the human body is a vessel, holding the spirit or soul.  All of my earliest work references the descent of spirit into matter, which, in early Christian iconography is represented by the cross- a vertical element intersecting a horizontal element. These works 'Holding the Sacred' reiterate that concept, the descent of spirit into matter.

This series was also influenced by Washington Color School painters including Leon Berkowitz, and Mark Rothko. 

Holding the Sacred: Tempest Teacup, 1991. 50"H x 38"W.  Acrylic painting on paper.

Totem Hexagram, 1990. Acrylic on paper, 28"H x 20"W.

This work is comprised of an underpainting with cut-up pieces of other discarded paintings stacked and collaged one on top of another.

Holding the Sacred: The I Ching Mandala, 1990. Acrylic on paper. 26"H x 26"W.

Holding the Sacred: Alchemy - Lead to Ruby, 1991. 50"H X 38"W. Acrylic and mica oxide on paper.

Holding the Sacred: Broken Vessel. 1991. Acrylic and collaged painting on paper. 50"W x 38"W.

Holding the Sacred:  I Ching with Gold and Lead, 1990. Acrylic on paper, 38"H x 25"W. SOLD.

International Women's Month, Cover art. Report for the World Bank meeting-Bejing China.1991

Holding the Sacred: Malkuth, the Small Earth, 1991. 50"H x 38"W.  Acrylic and collage on paper. 

In the ministerial program (1983-1988), course studies included the Hermetic Qabalah, (derived from the Hebrew Kabbalah) which is considered a fundamental framework for understanding the metaphysical (spiritual) aspects of the universe. Malkuth represents the earth, and the material world.  It is in this 'caldron of life', the metaphysician works her way on the path to enlightenment.

Holding the Sacred: Broken Vessel, 1991. Acrylic and collage on paper, 50"H x38"W. 

Paintings of the I Ching:  Po - Splitting Apart, 1991. SOLD

In the midst of creating this series, a student/woman I taught in a class on death and dying committed suicide.  No one close to her saw it coming.  This painting is about her, and her decision to separate from her body.

Paintings of the I Ching: Forest and Iridescence, acrylic on paper. 40"x26". 

Paintings of the I Ching - Magenta Light with Copper, acrylic on paper, 40"H x 26"W.  Available.

Paintings of the I Ching: The Infinitesimal Germs of Events.

Paintings of the I Ching: House of Orange Fire, acrylic on paper, 40"Hx 28"W, 1991. Available.

Paintings of the I Ching:  House of Turquoise Light acrylic on paper, 40"Hx 28"W, 1991.  

Paintings of the I Ching:  House of Light, acrylic on paper, 40"Hx 28"W, 1991. 

Paintings of the I Ching:  Pastel Light, Pastel on paper, 40"Hx 28"W, 1991.

Paintings of the I Ching: Ch'ien-Climbing the Dragon, acrylic on paper. 40"H x 26"W.

Paintings of the I Ching: Ch'ien - House of the Creative, 1990. Acrylic on paper, 40"H x 26"W.

Detail: One Moment in a Day, 1953. Mixed media on paper with collaged torn paper. 63”H x 55”W"

One Moment in a Day, 1953. Mixed media and torn paper on paper. 60"H x 55"W., 

My mother, who was born in 1921, was pregnant in 1953 with a third child for our family. The fetus was RH positive.  Transfusions were not done at that time.   My mother was RH negative. The baby died in utero in the eight month of her pregnancy from hemolytic disease. She had to carry the fetus to term.  After the boy was born, she was not permitted to hold or even see the child after its birth.

In knowing her for fifty-nine years before she passed, I believe she didn't recover from that loss. This painting is about the pain of that loss.

Turbulence, mixed media and torn paper on paper. 20"H x 26"W.

I Am a Ball of Fire, 1985. 50"H x 50"W. Torn paintings on paper are collaged onto paper.

This painting and several other paintings within this body of work represent my effort to depict my self, freed from the corporeal body I was born into.  It is an unanswerable inquiry, but these works attempt to examine it from the perspective of the unconscious mind.

Demons Without Faces (30.5”H x 38.25”W diptych) in a New York collection.

Demons Without Faces (30.5”H x 38.25”W diptych) was purchased by Joseph Hirshhorn at an auction to benefit the Washington Project for the Arts.

The work was bequeathed to the Hirshhorn Museum upon Joe Hirshhorn’s death.  The Object Record at the Hirshhorn is .86.661.

Ring of Fire, mixed media on paper with torn paper. 20"H x 26"W.

Sylph. Acrylic on paper, 50"H x 38"W. 1990

What Noise??? Mixed media on canvas. 2000. 84"H x 70"W.

Wraith, a self portrait, 1987. Acrylic on paper, 40”H x 26”W.  Exhibited At Touchstone Gallery Figure As Image, Figure As Symbol.

Both Sides of His Mouth, 1987. Acrylic on paper, 40”H x 26”W.    Exhibited At Touchstone Gallery in Figure As Image, Figure As Symbol.

Worse Than His Bite, 1987. Acrylic on paper. 26"H x 20"W.

Man with a Daggar, 1987. Acrylic on paper, 40”H x 26”W.  Exhibited at Touchstone Gallery Figure As Image, Figure As Symbol.

Initiation, 1987. Acrylic on paper. 40"H x 26"W.

Man in Blue, 1987. Acrylic on Lenox paper 40”H x 26”W.

Soldier of Fortune, 1987. Acrylic on Lenox paper 40”H x 26”W.