Current Works

The ancient concept that all of the natural world is interconnected is becoming ever more obvious as the Climate Crisis significantly advances and politics divide and polarize human beings. Thich Nhat Hahn explained the concept as “Inter-being”. Although compositional balance is sought in any work of art, in my altered prints collage drawings I actively considered Hahn's concept by setting up intentionally difficult compositional challenges for myself to solve using elements from my hand-drawn and hand-printed works from long ago. In collage and assemblage my goal is to gently interweave different elements such that they became inextricably dependent upon their particular role in the overall asymmetrical balance among the other components. Here, I limited myself to using scraps of high contrast monochromatic material while considering the symbolism of individuals in co-existent harmony. 

As I continue to harvest the old materials of my art-making past to create "starts" for my mixed media pieces, the works in this group began with scraps of hand-marbled paper I had saved.

 I used colored pencils to embellish and bring into relationship the shapes, swirls and lines that had been suggested through the marbling, responding to what was already there, creating imaginary worlds.  My newfound use of color feels like an embracing of the Light, Lightness and Freedom I feel in my present life. 

Drawing was initially and for many years my primary focus in art-making. Recently it has returned, mostly incorporated into mixed media, but occasionally taking center stage.

When a work becomes a book instead of something else, such as a series of images meant to be shown on a wall, the content has determined that a book must be made. The form it takes originates from the inside out. Book Arts afford the possibility of mixing media in many ways. My most elaborate book works have been culminations of large group projects that I designed and carried out over long periods of time, particularly during the 1990s.

I have been involved with digital imaging and webwork since the early 1990s, having introduced, with another graduate student, the first digital courses for artists and photographers in the College of Fine Arts at the University of New Mexico ca. 1994/5. My focus was using the computer as a tool for studio artists, resulting in mixed media results that were completed by hand. I likewise carried this activity to Loyola University (then College), incorporating digital use into some of my courses and creating hybrid ones. I have been making websites for myself and others since the earliest days, keeping up with the programs and platforms that have continued to dramatically change. 

Photography, which I also studied as an undergraduate and practiced through the years, accompanied my digital progress and emerged in a big way when I was researching/writing my books and blogging in the early 2000s. 

Each of my single pieces in my Prayer for the Earth series (#s 1, 2, and 3) began from a single scan of a rejected small piece of marbled or ink washed paper that I further enhanced through drawing. I scanned the altered scrap, then altered it digitally using Adobe Photoshop to create a framing device into which I directly drew into after the computerized "start" had been professionally printed on fine paper. The initial images were intentionally faint, with only light suggestions of color. I proceeded to add imagery from the natural world and draw with graphite and colored pencils throughout the entire work to complete each one. What would have been the fourth drawing in this series was instead completed as the artist's book you can see under "Book-Related Works". I made editions of only three large prints per image, with one smaller made specifically for a College Book Arts exchange during the pandemic.