Artist Statement

An investigation of contradictions creates the basis of my artworks - complex, echoing Surrealism, but when you're invited by a museum director to exhibit an entirely new body of work based on research you're exploring, you just do it. That invitation was the beginning of an almost three-year journey to create my Contradictions - Bringing The Past Forward© exhibition at San Bernardino County Museum in Redlands, California and Apple Valley Museum, Victor Valley, CA, culminating in the development of the exhibit catalogue.

During the last three years I took a creative detour in my work to develop my research-based Contradictions - Bringing The Past Forward exhibit. The exhibit,  believed to be the first visual interpretation of the untold stories of the twenty three African-American families who homesteaded in the Mojave Desert, California starting in 1910, was exhibited at San Bernardino County Museum, Redlands, California and Apple Valley Museum, Victor Valley, California. 

This was a new approach to my creative practice - telling the untold story of these homesteaders via my artwork - resulted in creating twenty three digital paintings in ProCreate on my iPad, an artist residency at BoxoPROJECTS; designing the installation process to create a tract map replica on the museum floor; working with an ESRI cartographer (Environmental Services Research Institute) to create a story map and archeologists at the Mojave National Preserve of the National Park Service. The digital paintings were printed on raw linen canvas, reminiscent of a desert color, and installed as scrolls. While the imagery appears different from my other artworks, the underlying concepts are similar. 

As an African American female artist whose artworks echo Surrealism, I live in Palm Springs, California USA in stark contrast to my USA Midwestern roots in Springfield, Illinois. I’m a contradiction, weathering dramatic challenges of change infused with great expectation. This is what inspires my creative process. My artworks incorporate dream-like metaphors into what at first appear to be realistic settings or images, embodying simplicity and deception, at the same time. I determine to execute my artworks impeccably, letting the knowledge of my artistry be evident in my use of color, draftsmanship, and execution.

Having weathered my own dramatic personal changes as an indirect catalyst to significant professional changes, evolving from one transition to another on my non-linear career path, I always wanted to be an artist. From traditional art training - Mount Mary University (BA Art), Long Island University (MA, Art), Michigan State University (Ph.D. Educational Administration) to global business and residencies traveling the world through, I translate these obstacles-as-opportunities into the unfolding mysteries of complex spatial relationships in my artwork. My risks, although, not always calculated, have become an integral part of this evolution.