I have always been fascinated by the patina of age on objects and paper. It is a reminder of the beauty and power of nature and that she always reclaims. These small works are constructed of painted images and glazes, printed and composted papers, embroidered fabrics, discarded remnants, disintegrating book pages, and fine ink drawings.
The patina of the work is genuine and has been built up over time. It is the product of a labor intensive endeavor which takes months or sometimes years of building up layers, taking apart, reassembling, and adding new layers. There is meaning even in the deeper parts of the work not visible to the eye.
The process is reminiscent of palimpsest (from the Greek palimpsestos (’scraped again’) often seen in illuminated manuscripts. A palimpsest is reused writing support material from which the underlying text has been erased (by washing in the case of papyrus and by using pumice or other scraping devices in the case of parchment). Erasure was not always complete and an underlying text would often bleed through. The use of transparent media such as lacquers and glaze allow deeper layers to peek through in parts of the image. The result is a small object evocative of an artifact. This continuous process of recontextualization gives the constructions their three dimensional depth and complexity.
I have always been fascinated by the patina of age on objects and paper. It is a reminder of the beauty and power of nature and that she always reclaims. These small works are constructed of painted images and glazes, printed and composted papers, embroidered fabrics, discarded remnants, disintegrating book pages, and fine ink drawings.