NO SUCH THING AS STRANGERS. Based on in-person interviews with Springfield residents, this series explores how individuals create and define the meaning of “home” in both a local sense and when considering the world as a broader, global place to live. These paintings and corresponding outdoor sculpture (Shifting Foundations) delve into a wide range of topics including memories, personal narratives, social issues, and how a city experiences change over time.
FOLLOWING THE THREAD. Rauma, Finland. Based on photographs and interviews with lace-makers from Nyplääjät ry, the murals around the energy station create a link with the mural on the water pumping station, forming a "Lace Pathway" in the park. Following the "thread" of a previous project in Rauma, the murals use lacemaking a metaphor for the making of social fabric. Thank you to RaumArs and Finlandia Foundation for supporting this project.
IRIDESCENT WINDOWS SERIES. Dreams are a lot like locked rooms where you can exist with your own intimate self and thoughts. If you lock the door yourself, you are in control of the dream, but if someone else locks it, the dream can become a nightmare. This series of paintings based on remembered fragments and written records of dreams. Why do some dreams keep recurring, and who is locking the door? With intensely saturated colors that convey a sense of drama, the paintings, made in 2021, can become a window into the locked room, exploring loss, confinement, disruption, grief, isolation, freedom, imagination, peace, hope, wonder, and the fantastical. The paintings offer a more permanent and complete view into the dream bubble, which can burst so quickly after waking up and opening the door.
TIERRA DE MUJER SERIES. What goes into growing coffee? In Huila, Colombia, a group of approximately 300 women farmers are working to produce high quality coffee beans from their own microlot farms through environmentally sustainable methods. These women are part of the Mujeres Cafeteras program within the Coocentral Coffee Cooperative, which has about 4,000 families each with their own small coffee farm. While traditionally most coffee farmers are men, this initiative is shifting labor for women in the program from working on household tasks to being entrepreneurial leaders. The paintings are based on interviews and touch on themes related to labor, land ownership, and a deep connection with the earth.
¿Qué hay detrás del arte de cultivar café? En Huila, Colombia, un grupo de aproximadamente 300 mujeres campesinas trabajan en sus microlotes y producen café de alta calidad usando métodos ambientalmente sostenibles. Estas mujeres forman parte del programa “Mujeres Cafeteras”, una iniciativa de la Cooperativa Coocentral que reúne a cerca de 4000 familias de la región. Si bien tradicionalmente la mayoría de campesinos cafeteros son hombres, esta iniciativa está cambiando los roles laborales de las mujeres de la zona quienes han dejado de dedicar todo su tiempo a completar tareas del hogar y se han convertido en emprendedoras del café.