Work samples

  • Bulls-eye
    Bulls-eye

    This painting radiates a sense of joyful multiplicity, using a vibrant, rhythmic layered composition combining concentrically radiating circles on a background of rich golden yellow-green.  The brushstrokes are visible and textured, revealing the hand-made immediacy of the piece despite the repetitive motif.

    The circles vary in size, placement, and color, creating an optical vibration across the surface, generating an effect of abundant energy, and celebration, with an organic quality reflective of cellular structures, eyes, or celestial bodies.  The repetition suggests interconnectedness although each form retains its own distinct details.   It feels both organic and symbolic.

About Patricia

Patricia is a native of Baltimore who's had a presence in the Washington art community for over forty years. She earned a BFA in Studio Art with a minor in art history at University of MD, College Park.

She was active in the Washington Women's Art Center from 1981 to 1987, with work exhibited and catalogued in shows juried by Linda Roscoe Hartigan, Mary Beth Edelson and May Stevens.

Joseph Hirshhorn purchased her torn paper dyptych ‘Demons without Faces’ in 1987, at… more

Photography: 2004 to present.

Photographs, 2004 to present.

Photography is a medium I use consistently in tandem with painting. It gives me the ability to document everything happening in my world which is filled with an infinite amount of visual stimuli. I use it to capture and record events in time.

For example, in the 1980's, I visited William Christenberry's studio in Washington, DC.  His photography documented the South, particularly "the disappearing South" of his native Hale County, Alabama.  Visiting his studio, and viewing the selective curation of his photographic story-telling, confirmed the urgency of recording visual references in the moment lest they disappear.

  • Yellow boots and mud.
    Yellow boots and mud.

    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.
    Elevator security.

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

    Photographed at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.

  • Tulip unfolding.
    Tulip unfolding.

    Unfolding, 2018. Photograph.

  • Chris at Thanksgiving, Savannah, Ga.
    Chris at Thanksgiving, Savannah, Ga.

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

  • Boarman's at night.
    Boarman's at night.

    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.

    Available for Purchase
  • Blue woman.
    Blue woman.

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

    Taken at the Brooklyn Museum of Art.

    Available for Purchase
  • Hedges with edges, Victoria, Canada.
    Hedges with edges, Victoria, Canada.

    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.
    A man on the subway, New York.

    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.
    Girls.

    Girls, photograph. 2017, Variable size.

  • Made in China.
    Made in China.

    Made in China, 2017. Photograph, variable size.

Water: 1995 - 2018

Water has an unequivocal role in sustaining life on earth. Symbolically, it represents vitality and fertility - essential for life to exist. It often use used in art to symbolize human emotions. As a force of nature, water can generate destructive energy -- in hurricanes, tsunamis, or storms at sea. Rivers and oceans serve as a means of transport and commerce. Hot springs and pools are a means for social connections. These paintings represent the pleasure, fear, and anxiety folks may associate with their memory of water.

  • Amsterdam.
    Amsterdam.

    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.

    Available for Purchase
  • The Middle Passage.
    The Middle Passage.

    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.

    Available for Purchase
  • Waterborne.
    Waterborne.

    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.

    Available for Purchase
  • Just swimming.
    Just swimming.

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

    Available for Purchase
  • Water study.
    Water study.

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

     

    Available for Purchase
  • Redhead.
    Redhead.

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

    Available for Purchase
  • Floating.
    Floating.

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

     

    Available for Purchase
  • Fat man floating.
    Fat man floating.

    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. 

    Available for Purchase
  • Reading
    Reading

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

    Available for Purchase
  • Ladies at the Hot Springs, Canada.
    Ladies at the Hot Springs, Canada.

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

     

     

    Available for Purchase

Genetics/Memetics, 1998.

This work emerged from a single word in 1998, “meme”.  I hadn't heard the word before.  Google wasn't even a search engine, yet. The word arrived, tumbling out of the the beyond, as the I Ching states, "the beginning of all things lies still in the beyond in the form of ideas that have yet to become real."

After some research I uncovered a science exploring how ideas are transmitted.  Merriam-Webster cited first use of the term 'Memetics' in 1984. Today, the term 'meme' is prevalent, but in 1998, it was not common.

Using the idea of cultural transference, I built a room environment juxtaposing the logic of scientific thought with an amalgamation of art historical references, cultural imagery and medical illustrations. 

I constructed a maquette miniaturizing the rooms dimensions.  I created two contiguous collages to mimic the parallel the walls in the gallery.  I worked for months photocopying images in black and white working them into a humourous mash-up of graphics. 

I used scale and monochomatic contrast to represent content that was familiar but became subversive. 

Some of the imagery included Albrecht Dürer's (1471-1528) engraving of the ‘Four Witches', which I reduced to three, blowing them up them to seven feet tall, and applying animal cartoon heads on them --drawn by 19th century artist/satirist Grandeville (1803-1847). I also added an illustration of cell mitosis in to one of the witches abdomen.

Another cultural reference was Margaret Bourke White’s photograph of ‘Fallow Field.’ By enlarging the scale  it became the pathway for a strolling figure of the human circulatory system.  Jimmy Durante's nose was enlarged to a scale of ten feet, and I replaced his eye with a vulva. That strong graphic ended of one wall.

I used multiple illustrations from 18th century fashion magazines and medical journals, including the gestational development of human and sheep embryos, political cartoon figures (by Grandeville, “Les Métamorphoses du jour, 1828”) and other recognizable scientific references, art historical and cultural imagery were essential for the visual to succeed.

A Denver businessman generously supported my printing of 1450 feet of large format vellum panels (each one measured thirteen feet long by three feet wide, and I designed a hanging system to display the panels side by side so the room seemed wallpapered with the imagery.

The installation exhibited at Pirate in Denver, 1998, and later at Art-O-Matic in Washington, DC, 2002.  The work received a photo review on the front page of the Style section in the Washington Post.

  • Genetics/Memetics
    Genetics/Memetics

    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.

  • Genetics Memetics
    Genetics Memetics
  • Editioned vellum prints, Genetics/Memetics.
    Editioned vellum prints, Genetics/Memetics.
    Available for Purchase
  • Genetics/Memetics, Washington, DC.
    Genetics/Memetics, Washington, DC.
  • Genetics/Memetics
    Genetics/Memetics
  • Genetics/Memetics
    Genetics/Memetics
  • Genetics/Memetics (detail).
    Genetics/Memetics (detail).

    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.

  • Genetics/Memetics
    Genetics/Memetics
  • Genetics/Memetics
    Genetics/Memetics
  • G:M Denver-4.jpeg
    G:M Denver-4.jpeg

    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.

The Big Women Series, 1997.

This work exhibited at Pirate, an artist cooperative gallery in Denver.

The exhibition included five large paintings of female body parts or faces interspersed with un-stretched canvases of men's eyes.  The starkness of monochromatic tones and contrast in scale were important to the social commentary.  Both of those elements would be used in subsequent exhibitions in Denver for Genetics/Memetics, and American Girl War.

Representations of women expressing ebullient emotions included Anna Magnani, (Just Laughing), and Maria Callas (One Cannot Be Both), and in your face graphic energy -the outsized vulva (Not a Flower) articulate a range of female power unacceptable in the culture in which I was raised.

On 'Not a Flower,' iridescent pink text becomes thicker and more opaque as it moves down the canvas in the form of an inverted triangle; it 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.

 

 

  • Just Laughing.
    Just Laughing.

    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..."

    Available for Purchase
  • Man #1872.
    Man #1872.

    Man #1872. The Big Women Series, 1997.  

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

    Available for Purchase
  • Not A Flower.
    Not A Flower.

    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.

     

     

    Available for Purchase
  • Man #189
    Man #189

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

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

    Available for Purchase
  • One Cannot be Both (Feminine and Adult)
    One Cannot be Both (Feminine and Adult)

    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.

    Available for Purchase
  • Man #50655.
    Man #50655.

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

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

    Available for Purchase
  • Being Versus Seeming.
    Being Versus Seeming.

    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.

    Available for Purchase
  • Man #11.
    Man #11.

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

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

    Available for Purchase
  • Boy #402822.
    Boy #402822.

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

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

    Available for Purchase
  • Doll. No brain.  No breath. No juice.  No life.
    Doll. No brain. No breath. No juice. No life.

    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.

     

     

    Available for Purchase

American Girl War, 1997-1998.

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

During a workshop "Photographic Story-telling" at Anderson Ranch, I worked with autobiographical photographs of my own as well as images from a family archive to create a narrative for the story of American Girl War.

The last three works are not part of the installation American Girl War, however, they relate in terms of my experience being a female in this American culture.

  • American Girl War.
    American Girl War.

    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.

     

  • Room installation:  American Girl War
    Room installation: American Girl War

    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
    American Girl War

    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.

  • Nightmare.
    Nightmare.

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

    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.

  • American Girl War
    American Girl War
  • Little Patti.
    Little Patti.

    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.
    Screaming Woman.

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

  • Media Assault.
    Media Assault.

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

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

     

  • Fractured.
    Fractured.

    Fractured, 1989.

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

Holding the Sacred 1990-91

A solo exhibition, Alla Rogers Gallery, Georgetown, Washington, DC, 1991.

 

  • Holding the Sacred, Floating Bronze Vessel
    Holding the Sacred, Floating Bronze Vessel

    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.
    Holding the Sacred: Tempest Teacup.

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

  • Holding the Sacred: Totem Hexagram.
    Holding the Sacred: Totem Hexagram.

    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.

    Available for Purchase
  • Holding the Sacred: I Ching Mandala
    Holding the Sacred: I Ching Mandala

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

    Available for Purchase
  • Holding the Sacred: Alchemy - Lead to Ruby
    Holding the Sacred: Alchemy - Lead to Ruby

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

    Available for Purchase
  • Holding the Sacred: Broken Vessel.
    Holding the Sacred: Broken Vessel.

    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
    Holding the Sacred: I Ching with Gold and Lead

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

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

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

    Available for Purchase
  • Holding the Sacred: Malkuth - Earthbound.
    Holding the Sacred: Malkuth - Earthbound.

    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, 50H x38W.
    Holding the Sacred: Broken Vessel, 1991. Acrylic and collage on paper, 50"H x38"W.

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

Paintings of the I Ching, 1988-1990

A series of nineteen paintings on paper, 40"x26". 1988-1990. 

Paintings of the I Ching emerged from the earlier series, Glyphs & Dyptychs which were a study of the separation of heaven and earth or the material juxtaposed with the divine. The work at this time was influenced by Mark Rothko, Ellesworth Kelly, Ad Reinhardt, Kenneth Nolan and Helen Frankenthaler.

Of the nineteen paintings exhibited at Arnold and Porter, sixteen paintings were sold.

  • Paintings of the I Ching:  Po - Splitting Apart
    Paintings of the I Ching:  Po - Splitting Apart

    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.

    Available for Purchase
  • Paintings of the I Ching: Forest and Iridescence
    Paintings of the I Ching: Forest and Iridescence

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

  • Paintings of the I Ching: Magenta Light with Copper
    Paintings of the I Ching: Magenta Light with Copper

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

    Available for Purchase
  • I Ching: The Infinitesimal Germs of Events
    I Ching: The Infinitesimal Germs of Events

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

  • Paintings of the I Ching: The House of Orange Fire
    Paintings of the I Ching: The House of Orange Fire

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

    Available for Purchase
  • Paintings of the I Ching: Ch'ien - Turquoise Light
    Paintings of the I Ching: Ch'ien - Turquoise Light

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

    Available for Purchase
  • Paintings of the I Ching: The House of Light
    Paintings of the I Ching: The House of Light

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

  • Paintings of the I Ching: Pastel Light
    Paintings of the I Ching: Pastel Light

    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
    Paintings of the I Ching: Ch'ien - Climbing the Dragon

    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.
    Paintings of the I Ching: Ch'ien - House of the Creative.

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

Torn Paper series and Energy works. 1981 - 2000

Torn Paper Series & Energy Work, 1981 - 2000.

As an artist I have alway worked with manipulating and representing energy forms. There are times when I sense that I am creating a representation that sees into the basic structure of reality, to a core of energy which inhabits all things.  These works represent that need to see beyond the surface of things. 

  • Detail: One Moment in a Day, 1953.
    Detail: One Moment in a Day, 1953.

    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.
    One Moment in a Day, 1953.

    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.
    Turbulence.

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

  • I Am a Ball of Fire.
    I Am a Ball of Fire.

    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.

     

  • Clearing in the forest, 1983
    Clearing in the forest, 1983
  • Demons without Faces II, 1981
    Demons without Faces II, 1981

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

  • Demons Without Faces, 1981
    Demons Without Faces, 1981

    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.
    Ring of Fire.

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

     

  • Sylph.
    Sylph.

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

  • What Noise???
    What Noise???

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

    Available for Purchase

Figure as Image, Figure as Symbol, 1987-1988.

Figure as Image, Figure as Symbol, 1987-1988. Acrylic on paper, 40"H x 26"W.

This series was created when while I was in the Corcoran Open Program working with Washington Color School artist, Leon Berkowitz.  Prior working with him, I had experienced a profound emotional trauma.  In working with Berkowitz I was able to bypass my conscious inhibitions to express the rage I had felt. I think that rage shows in the colors and active brush work in these paintings.

 

  • Wraith, a self portrait.
    Wraith, a self portrait.

    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.
    Both Sides of His Mouth.

    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.
    Worse Than His Bite.

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

  • Man with a Dagger.
    Man with a Dagger.

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

  • Initiation.
    Initiation.

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

  • Man in Blue.
    Man in Blue.

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

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