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my lifeI grew up in the United States and completed a BA in literature in Santa Barbara, an MA in literature in Sydney and a three-year printmaking diploma in London, where I currently live with my husband and son. I have also lived in Ecuador, where I taught modern literature and creative writing, and in France, where I contributed articles on art and fashion design to Surface magazine. In addition to printmaking I am interested in writing fiction, interior design, jewelry design and textiles. |
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my inspirationsI am fascinated by the way patterns are repeated in both nature and urban landscapes and find inspiration in everything from maps, train tracks and aerial photographs to stones, moss, bark, lily pads and microscopic organisms. I save images that attract me—pictures from art, fashion or gardening magazines, my own photographs, and flyers and postcards from exhibitions I’ve attended—and group them in notebooks according to a color, texture or pattern that presents itself as a common thread. Though I often flip through or edit my notebooks, I don’t try to duplicate a picture literally or plan how a monotype will turn out, but as these sample notebook pages prove, my influences do manifest themselves in my finished work. |
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my processThe time required to finish one of my monotypes varies, but often takes months. I usually start by rolling a color all over a smooth Plexiglas plate and then work reductively, creating the image by removing ink, sometimes by masking sections, but mainly with turpentine, using everything from spatulas, droppers and paintbrushes to muslin, tissue and cotton swabs. Now and then I take an additive approach and start on a clean plate or use a ghost image (a print made with the faint, left-over ink from a used plate). I like a layered effect and often put a print through the press anywhere from three to ten times, sometimes finishing a composition with collaged pieces or hand-painted ink or gouache paint. For my latest work I have spent many months printing sheet after sheet of unique circles, meticulously hand-tearing them out and collaging multiple layers of them onto one-of-a-kind backgrounds. |
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