Artist’s Statement

I work with wood because wood never dies. Even after sliced into sheets not much thicker than paper, it remains alive, and has to be reckoned with. It has to be worked with, not used as a tool or colour that does your bidding. This balancing, this constantly having to be in agreement with an element that insists on telling its own story within my story, is humbling, challenging and keeps me linked with my place in nature.

There is a harmony and balance between the triad of drawing, wood working and painting. Drawing often starts with smaller sketches and research. The final full size line drawing becomes the template for the wood veneer.

Each piece of veneer is carefully chosen for colour, grain and final effect, taking into consideration that some of the woods change dramatically in color after finish is applied, while others do not. Some but not all woods change significantly in time, some cut cleanly, others not. There are woods that bleed colour; others are unusually hard or soft, which is a consideration in sanding and painting. All this has to be envisioned when the selection of woods is made.

Each piece is hand cut and held together on the line drawing template with tape until the whole drawing is covered. It is then squared and glued onto a plywood carcass in a vacuum press. All the tape and residual mastic is carefully removed, and the first sanding is done.

After this thin grooves or channels are cut into the surface and filled with mineral tinted pastes to add thin outlines or other fine elements. After a final sanding, the painting begins in some of the pieces.

My goal is to enhance and add dimension to what is already there in the woods with countless extremely thin veils of colour. Again the fact that the wood is often not the colour it will be once it receives finish is a challenge.

I see the wood veneers some salvaged from shop floors, some fresh from perfect bundles coming from all over the world, shaped and fit together and harmonizing to create something of beauty together as a metaphor for life, cooperation and respect between peoples and species

Figurative work is crucial in this day and age. Now more than ever before we must look at ourselves closely in the mirror. This is a moment in history that demands poignant self-examination and I feel we are abusing of Abstract in order not to do this, using Abstract because we are uncomfortable with realism. So I depict people, usually of mixed backgrounds, often young thus representing the future. My compositions look directly at the viewer or interact in a way that is meaningful or true.

I try to keep the message somewhat ambiguous, as it is not my job to tell the viewer what she should be feeling – that is a personal experience which is different for each individual- but I do aim to for an intimate emotional response.

The 6/10mm thick veneers  I work with are  as little wood as is possible to use while retaining the beauty of this material that is so linked to the survival and  evolvement of our species-feeding, clothing, warming and sheltering us since the beginning of our time. I utilize reclaimed woods (mostly for frames, and veneer scraps from furniture shops), certified plywood and non-toxic glues and, when possible, finishes. I donate at least 10% of my earnings to projects that help the Earth and her inhabitants.