I am a morning person. That’s where my energy lies. I work almost every day, usually three to five hours at a time. My day starts with “nuggets” that I have left from the previous day, fragments of images, tear sheets, enough to get me started.
Work begins with the placement of something on the paper. From there I add things: a snippet, a color swatch, or a few lines. Something within the page pushes me to make decisions. Given a choice, I will choose the “other,” just to be different.
Color, texture, and adjacency are important, but the picture plane is not sacred. There is no message or hidden agenda, although I must admit to being mischievous — the choice of images is casual and off-hand. At one point shoes, women’s shoes, were a selection because they are so varied and design centered. They offered an interesting combination of color, texture and risk, and readily entered into the mix.
The drawings are anything but drawings. They are on paper, but other than that they are a combination of color supplied by house paint, pastels, oil sticks, and graphite. Additions to the surface are applied with glue and are Xerox copies, newspapers (sometimes foreign language), maps, and sewing patterns.
There is nothing that is safe or sacred when I am working. In fact, unless I put drawings away, they are open to theft and piracy. I will pilfer my own work, cut it up, and add it to the one in process. That said, all work is the result of what was learned earlier.
When I look back at completed work, I am always surprised at what I have done. They remain fresh and I like that quality about them.
