My art and writing reflect an intense connection to the work of the dream and the collective unconscious. My ongoing work is an introspective methodology that gives integrity to the creative encounter itself.

My early work was expressionistic and primitive with themes of alienation, passion and intensity. My ongoing work continues to be alive with initiatory symbols reflecting my process and shamanic/mediating influence from the unconscious.

In an exploration of “book art” I worked with a combination of image and language, such as word plays in paper dolls of recycled paper with handwritten poetry, wound and wrapped to form dolls. I worked with a series of poems on handmade paper in rows of preserving jars and old windows hung in doorways with poems written over them., for example. Poems in this form are like ancient rituals.

There are sculptural pieces in clay, grass, cloth and animal skeleton. This ongoing work invigorates the shamanic world view which embodies dreams and myths and archetypal images. Art as medicine--the shamanic aspect of depth art that makes a place for the experience and process of the images and mythologies from the collective unconscious and the archetype of the wounded healer. This world view evolves and includes an earth-centred heritage.

Though painting is my mainstay, I allow my instincts to lead when it comes to exploring other mediums.

process
 

Artists are the borderland dwellers who live close to the collective unconscious and give expression to the unlived, unspoken “story” of the culture. My work is largely to mediate that which is unseen, finding expression for the process of change, transformation, life/death/rebirth. There is an aspect of the work that remains hidden, that is contained in Mystery and evokes questions rather than answers.

The mythmaking aspect of the psyche is Soul and has a valid evolutionary history. The images are transformative and ever-changing. They carry the energy through the psyche and through our dreams and creative work, into consciousness. My process is to allow the spontaneous flow of material and the medium itself to carry the images with very little interference until the images begin to emerge. It is the image then, that determines the direction, and I follow. Ultimately it is the divine dance.

The work of bringing these gifts from the unconscious more fully into form is a process of discovery for me. Art making is a sacred place where mystery, metaphor and an experience of the divine converge.

My work continues to be peopled with new images of rebirth and initiation that place the “spirits” back into the landscape. These methods and encounters are described in The Woman Who Could See In All Directions At The Same Time.