I love to paint the Marin landscape, Cityscapes and California landmarks. I also enjoy illustrating icons of the 50’s like surfing, Woodys, and Airstreams. Actually I am interested in most any subject that tells a story or invokes an experience.

I am a psychologist with many interests that have become wellsprings for my current art — early human consciousness, indigenous cultures and their ceremonial practices, shamanism, dreams. I sometimes feel as if figures are coming to me a netherworld in which archetypal figures come into form, and sometimes want to come out to say something. The extreme grief of our war-ravaged world is a substrate giving rise to these figures. They offer an invitation to look past the concrete world, to know ourselves as part of nature, and beyond that, a world of constantly changing energies and forms. Perhaps they are suggesting that new information and forms might emerge to aid in healing the world.

Artist Statement
My inspirations are to be found throughout the remarkable world of plants, from simplest weeds to elaborate horticultural creations, but my favorite subjects are the native plants, fungi and lichens of California. From a childhood spent exploring the wild places of this state to the present time I spend designing and gardening with a wide diversity of plants, I have found an endless supply of botanical subjects to pay homage to through my art. Accuracy and beauty are equally important goals, and I intend my art to serve as a medium through which my chosen subjects can speak, as it were, for themselves, and reveal their exquisite characters to the viewer.

Technique
Working almost exclusively from live specimens, I begin with a sketch, then a detailed pencil rendering on hot-press, acid-free paper. I then apply watercolor, first with small areas of wash, and later with rather dry paint applied with tiny sable brushes to gradually build up color, depth and detail. My pen & ink drawings also are started with a pencil drawing, over which the line and stippling are carefully applied with the smallest available Rapidograph pens. Extraneous pencil can be erased once the paint or ink is completely dry.

My paintings express human emotion and engage themes of climate change and community. I paint figures, nature and animals and frequently vary my stylistic approach.

These paintings are strongly influenced by Paul Gauguin, Henri Matisse and the Fauve movement in France combined with the colors, passion, and folklore of Latin America assimilated through my travels.

I reveal the mood, feelings and soul of my figurative subjects through their eyes and posture. I incorporate imaginary backgrounds with fabrics, rugs, or windows, to complete the ambience.

By contrast, my surrealist series draws from artists such as Dali and Rousseau. In these paintings my brush and my imagination run free. This freedom of spirit creates unexpected imagery through the sheer use of color.

In nature, I am inspired by the recent floods and storms in Marin County. I paint trees after heavy rains to capture the changing landscape, often with fallen or tangled limbs and their reflections in pooled water. Currently, I primarily explore landscape abstraction.

ARTIST STATEMENT: PAINTING THAT DEFINES PLACE
I am a contemporary landscape painter who uses rich colors to express a dramatic sense of light and space. As a child I celebrated coloring outside the lines. Those loose imperfect marks define my gestural painting style to this day. If painting were religion I would be praying to the saints: Matisse, Diebenkorn and Hockney. With a focus on abstract landscapes and architectural interiors, my art is influenced by the vibrant colors of my Northern California surroundings. Many of my landscapes use what I call an ƒ”invented color spaceƒ” where color is used to break up the composition and achieve a sense of depth and atmosphere that can be open to the interpretation of the viewer.

My paintings reflect the light and colors of my native country, Sweden. The range varies from the spare light of winter when colors are very subtle to the intense, long daylight of summer when colors are saturated. Color, shapes and lines are very important in the expression of my art that’s frequently minimalistic, which is another Scandinavian influence. Although my art has moved from representational towards abstraction, my inspiration is still influenced by nature and my love for the natural world. I find the painting process absorbing; it’s constantly changing during the process and the outcome is sometimes surprisingly different from my initial idea. This creative dynamic keeps the painting process dynamic and intriguing.

I was once asked: “In one or two words, what means the most to you in life?” The answer, and the realization, came to me in an instant:
Creative Opportunity!
My artistic expression, often three-dimensional, is an effort to create beauty and simplicity in functional objects. Over a lifetime I’ve worked with many media. I learned knitting and sewing at my mother’s knee, sewing clothes, knitting sweaters and sox, working on a variety of embroidery projects. These led me to my interest in ornamentation and artwear.

My grandmother introduced me to travel — across the country by train at 12 years old, two months in Europe plus North Africa when I was 18 years old, as well as many solo and group trips beyond.

A recent Creative Opportunity was presented by decades-long collections of yarns, fabrics, ethnic beads, shells and treasured tchotchkes. That work combined them into jewelry using techniques from textile arts, beading and metal smithing.

Now I’ve returned to my sewing background – creating improv pieced quilting studies as small wall art.

As I look back I see how influenced I’ve been by family, including my father’s engineering! Yes, figuring out how to carry out my creative visions often takes a bit of engineering!

I am a ceramic sculptor who creates unique handcrafted pieces. My sculpture is unique, at times fun, and always thought-provoking; a way of expressing my views both politically and aesthetically.

My work spans from whimsical anthropomorphic animals, political / media genres, sensual hearts , beastie planter heads , life size bikinis to landscape paintings on sculptural forms.

All my work is all hand built with coils or slabs. I use a lot of sprigging in the English Wedgwood tradition and I make my own texture molds to embellish my work. My pieces are low fired, glazed and multi fired in an electric kiln. I make statements to make people stop and think or laugh and smile.

My family, an upbringing in Asia, science, and the world around me have a profound effect on my choice of subject matter. I like to work in series. I will often be working on different series at the same time.

In the landscape series I am inspired by the Mediterranean and North American landscapes, the sculptural forms that I have developed over a decade have become my canvases for using a watercolor technique where I draw and paint the visions I have into the topographical forms of the sculptures. Because I am concerned about the environment and the impact of humankind throughout the world, I feel compelled to record these snapshot vignettes of our beautiful landscapes before they are ruined or disappear altogether.

As a bee keeper and avid gardener bees and plants often find their way into my work.

I love making functional plates, platters and bowls to enhance the food I love to make for my friends. I make unusual vases for the flowers we grow for the bees.

Making a tapestry is my passion. Given only working two elements; the warp and the weft, I am fascinated by all the design possibilities. Within this simple grid format, color, shape, line, and and especially texture, both dimensional and materials, come together to complete my artistic expression. As nature is often the inspiration for my ideas, I find the possibilities infinite and I continue to be mesmerized.

My atmospheric, abstract works suggest an unveiling of secrets I uncover in my own journey. I strive to express the ethereal expansiveness of this life with works that present a contemplative and peaceful state where answers begin to reveal themselves in the chaos of creation.