In some ways, I have always worked with visual discourse and had in interest in how the page is more than a page of ignored letters in order to ‘read’. I typically don’t ask students to do work that I haven’t done myself: assignments, readings, activities. Inspired by Karen Ernst (Picturing Learning: Artists & Writers in the Classroom) I began using journals in my 9th grade classroom. I did all the assignments the students did, and this process of drawing and learning worked its way into other areas of my work. I knew from my avant-garde studies that the book wasn’t just a book, but also a space of design. Over the years, I kept exploring the visual aspect of meaning within the book and with such fine examples by Susan Howe and Johanna Drucker, I started making my own.
Like the students, I realized that I could make meaningful visual marks. I slowly moved from the page to the canvas, but kept the page with me. Nothing original here. When I saw the show, Of Green Leaf Bird and Flower (YCBA, May 15 to August 10, 2014) and discussed the book/show with the Elisabeth Fairman, I knew I wanted to keep making books, but also paint; I then created the garden studies fusing these elements together. Again, keeping with some of the same principles in the show, I only painted the elements of my own designed garden and property. I am indebted to her work and vision.
The Lake series stems from summers spent on Lake Bellaire, MI.
As is probably evident, I am self-taught through years of drawing, reading, and writing inside and outside of the classroom space.
Lake Series I, II, III, IV
Garden Series I, II
