Obsessive Creative Disorder: An affliction that has affected me periodically throughout my life. In 2016 I finally accepted my fate. After 33 years of veterinary practice, I decided to take the plunge into full time painting. I traded the scalpel for the paintbrush, and haven’t looked back. During my career as a veterinarian, I prided myself in my clarity of communication. Now I find myself deliberately pursuing ambiguity, and even chaos. I am constantly probing the border between randomness and control.  In my quest to find my “voice”, to invent my own visual language, I have experimented extensively with patterned fabrics. I relish finding new ways to let the fabrics “speak”. The patterns can create texture or mood. Combining different fabrics can produce harmony or dissonance. I have also used a variety of reflective materials in my art (rhinestones, metallic fabrics, interference acrylics.) I love the way that these elements change their appearance according to light angle, encouraging the viewer to move around and discover different perspectives.

 

I am a very visual person, and so many things that I see move me, touch me, and impel me to create. It is enormously gratifying when my creation succeeds in moving, touching, and especially, amusing another human being.  Modern life has become increasingly frenetic and technological; my wish is that my handmade paintings can bring some beauty and wonder into a space, as well as a little levity.  (Don't we all need to be reminded not to take ourselves TOO seriously?)

 

Fabric Paintings:  I have been exploring ways to incorporate patterned fabric into my paintings. In some of my works I use pieces of fabric as conventional collage elements.   I have also been doing large “all-over” fabric paintings, where I cover the entire cradled panel with a single sheet of patterned fabric, and then create the painting on top of it. I am discovering that there are many ways to let the pattern speak. While I am excited about some of the ways I have played with the fabric patterns, I am also excited about the possibilities I can envision, but haven’t yet made real. And even more excited about what possibilities I have yet to imagine.

 

Fauna and Flora: It is not surprising that a veterinarian-turned-artist would paint animals. I have greatly enjoyed portraying the many species of domestic animals I have known in my long veterinary career. But I also find inspiration in my garden, and on my daily bike rides along the Arkansas River and on country roads of Reno County, Kansas.