Aviary
In my current Aviary series, the image of the bird appears in an almost obsessive way. This bird image is based in memory, leading me back to my grandfather’s aviary. It is also symbolic, the image of the bird in mythology and the ideas of flight, travel and freedom. I strive to marry the formal concerns of traditional painterly abstraction and pattern painting with images of birds, birdcages, with some type of recognizable but abstracted space. The body reappears in my most recent paintings and mixed media works. It takes its form from the simplicity of childhood images and memories of an innocence lost. They become simplified contour shapes like a cut out doll, a dress or an article of clothing. Many of the paintings in this series have collaged images, notes, and letters associated with the person. They are symbolic portraits with a personal narrative of family and close friends.