THE LOVE SERIES (2016)
ARTIST'S STATEMENT
In daily life we live with one view, the one in front of us. We can’t see the whole, but it doesn’t mean that this larger picture doesn’t exist.
Each painting of these shows is created individually, however, if you to put the paintings together they become a single larger image. They're purposely too large to show them in one location.
You can only see the ones in front of you, but the larger picture is there.
Our separateness is only in our perception. Taking a painting or print home means you're connected to the other images and this larger message- we are all interconnected, even when we lose sight of our connection.
Earlier in creating fine art, I made a lot of it about political issues. One show was focused on hate crimes, in which I drew portraits of murdered individuals with the words of their stories overlaid. It was excruciating to create those artworks, it cost me something to focus on that, and I grieved constantly as I made each piece.
After my 2015 cancer diagnosis, "love is all that matters" became a sort of mantra for me. I couldn't create from a place of anger or pain anymore. I decided I wanted everything I put out into the world to be about love.
Thinking that cancer could take my life, my view was suddenly filled by these big questions: Where have I shown love? Where have I expressed love and made that available to others? All the other minutiae stopped mattering to me. Just love.
I wanted to create something that would encourage people to focus on love and what it means to them. I have a gift as an artist. I want to leave a gift of love for the world.
Everything I've created since is grounded in love. After painting these for over a year, I know how different it is to paint each work with this intention. As I created these works, I meditated on the word love. I knew I couldn’t focus on the negative, it had to be the positive, if only for my physical health. The actual creation of the artwork is impacted by this meditation, this focus.
I hope you feel it.
MOVEMENT (2014)
