Artist Statement

I began at two, somberly lacing and unlacing an old shoe. At five I played with sand, not dolls. At nine I wandered solitary on clay-red trails, scavenging for pebbles, twigs, and other curiosities of nature. At twelve I waited out the ebb and flow of ocean waves, studying the shifting shapes of sand and stone. I was interrupted at thirteen, forced by circumstance to “grow up” and “do life” like everybody else.

At forty-something I came full circle to my old love of things lace-able, shape-able, touchable, buildable, paintable. After completing the Fine Arts Certificate Program at the U of A Faculty of Extension, I began my search for a way of bringing together my study of fine art on a two-dimensional surface and my love of three-dimensional, tactile forms. I started experimenting with plaster, applying layers of an acrylic polymer compound to canvas before carving into the dried plaster with hand tools — dental tools, wood-carving tools, rotary tools.

Working in plaster on canvas has become my primary medium. I often integrate other natural and synthetic materials such as sand, fibre, paint, glass, beads, and bone. This can be a time-consuming process. As I work I am continually reminded that the creative process and indeed my entire life-process is a rhythm of building up and breaking down, rising and falling, shifting and reshaping. My sculptures on canvas are abstract interpretations of these natural processes I encounter in life.