State College, PA
For four decades, fiber has been my language. Even as my practice has expanded into painting, silk keeps me rooted; its ability to drink in dye and paint creates the luminous depth I find endlessly compelling. Its translucency allows layered complexity, especially when paired with my silkscreened textures.
Through color, line, and the play between exaggeration and simplification, I explore the boundary between reality and abstraction. I use a technique that blends liquid acrylic on translucent silk layered over silkscreened textures on board. The painted silk, made with resists and custom-mixed acrylics, produces vibrant, shifting color.
Beneath it, the textured layer—silkscreened with thickened dyes and organic materials like mushroom cross-sections—yields unpredictable imagery as the dyes break down. By integrating organic elements directly into the process, I honor nature, my muse, while creating work with both visual depth and emotional resonance. "Amsterdam" especially shows off the interplay between the painted silk and visual textures underneath. One would not be as rich without the other.
