In my work I try to capture the beauty from the world around us through the use of color, texture, pattern, and line. I work in many different themes arranging from landscapes, to dancers, portraits, and still life’s.

Dancing has been one of my passions and it has greatly influenced my work. While painting, I try to capture the different perspectives, moods, and feelings of a dancer at different times and places. During a performance the mood is energetic with bright colorful lights and highly decorated costumes. Decorative arrangements and designs emphasize the beauty and complexity of a dancer during a performance. The different materials that I use are inspired by Early Italian Renaissance altarpieces. These altarpieces are very elaborately decorated with jewels, gold, and other valuable materials—similar to ballet costumes. To imitate this ornamentation, I have used a variety of materials—fabric, yarn, ribbon, beads, and thread—to create interesting surface textures and designs in my work. Adding multiple materials to the canvas not only decorates the canvas, but also makes the artwork more tactile inviting the viewer to look closer and discover what is fabric and what is paint.

This ornamentation has spilled over into other themes. For example, hiking is another one of my pastimes. Layers of fabric are applied to the canvas to imitate the textures seen throughout the hike—clouds, shrubs, bark, trees, etc. My goal is to intrude the viewer’s space with tangible materials and invite the viewer to participate in the beauty I find.