The human figure as expressed in modern dance has always informed my art. Closing my eyes, I can envision the outline of the dancer's body translated to paper to manifest the expressiveness of the whole body...head,arms,legs and torso. In my mind I create the intensity and exuberance of the dance which then gets translated to paper. I began incorporating landscapes into my work after falling in love with the dramatic scenery of the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. My current work uses many design elements from my background in textile design, but the dance figure always remains central.
In 2004, I began working with archival colored brush markers, small nib .005 translucent and black ink pens, creating grid backgrounds with a design overlay. Experimenting with a range of pen points from .005-.03, more complex designs have emerged. Current paintings may include a background grid but I am more interested in experimenting with figures set in fanciful landscape settings and incorporating some grid patterns into the landscape design. When I began to work with the markers and small nib pens, a more painterly effect developed by stippling overlays of color, using the colored ink small nib pens-working from lighter to darker to create greater depth and intensity of color. Most work contains three or more overlays of color all created through the stippling technique.
