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         Until recent years my primary creative expression has been through music -- from traditional repertoire to free form improvisation as a violinist. In making visual art, I find that making conscious decisions and still being spontaneous is very much like improvisation in music. I do not hear music when I make art nor see colors when I improvise music, yet the underlying processes share in common an experience in which my emotional and intellectual selves are intertwined. As I explore the language of abstraction, my focus is on connecting an idea to the physical process-- how much paint to use? how thick should the line be? how do the colors relate to each other? -- and just going for it.  As I continue to expand my visual vocabulary and develop skills , I try not to be overly judgmental, leaving me free to discover how  I can use different modes and styles of painting to express my ideas.  I most often choose the language of abstract expression because it disinhibits my imagination.

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        For me, making art is a breathtaking experience. It literally takes my breath away. Beginning with a seed idea from an image, a feeling, an experience, a concept-- I know that I am onto the story that will be told when I forget to breathe-- (not that I know the full story yet!) .   Getting to the heart of the story in turn opens up connections -- intellectual, visual, emotional and others-- that add perspectives and energize my creative process. Similar to musical improvisation there is an element of "call and response", but with the visual dimension. Once I get an understanding of the story I do my best to focus so that I can be true to what it is.

 

        As an example, the seed idea for "The Angst and Hope of a Woman" was an image of rocks in a Japanese garden-- their shapes and positions as well as my memory of being there. Simultaneously, I was contemplating a question raised in a feminist art history class: "what is female art?" Intellectually I reject the notion of "female art". Reflecting on that question inspired shapes with soft curves I associate with womanhood. 

 

        In both music and visual art I am fascinated with how small units work together to form the "whole"-- and how that "whole" becomes a smaller unit of another "whole". My curiosity about the connection between the "units" and the "wholes" keeps the excitement going.

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