Abstract and poetry-based paintings

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Smoke again. 2022. 12x12 inches. Acrylic and mixed media on wood panel. Available for purchase here.

In recent years here in the Bay Area, each Summer we watch and hope that we may be spared another extreme wildfire season. In September, on an early morning bike ride, we watched the sun rise behind a sky of smoke that travelled in from the California and Oregan fires.

The land and nature inspire me, as it evolves and resolves and continues. This painting was energised by that inspiration.

Waiting at the doors. 2021. 11x15, acrylic and mixed media on paper. Available for purchase here.

I followed a meditative process that led me to paint this door, and concluded the process by creating an accompanying poem (below).

At last, the doors are visible;
A journey of endurance to reach them.
Simple doors: worn, yet loved,
A portal for commune with light and each other.
Who waits on the other side?
Or, what waits?
A door can lead the mind to wander...
There is a barrier to penetrate, after all.
But, wait - is the door itself 'the place'?
Where the blessing is in the watching and waiting?
We could collapse here now.
The wind has died down, the children's laughter reaches us.
The sun is setting gently, the birds quieting for rest.
The struggle can end, for now;
This part of the journey concludes.
Tomorrow, wake with wonder,
Let the fight wrestle elsewhere,
Let your mind watch and wait,
For the door brings passage to delight.

There is light at the end of the tunnel. 2021. 9x12in. Mixed media on paper. SOLD.

Do you ever get those days you feel blocked on something? I had one of those times, so I turned to the blank paper and began by painting. I began with black lines and curves, as a way to make peace with the ‘prison’. I then layered and layered, and look - there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Treehouse. 2022. 11x14 inches. Acrylic and mixed media on watercolour paper. Available for purchase here.

I created painting in response to a poem I wrote as part of the CRE-STRIDE Deadly Poets Society gatherings. The image wouldn’t leave me as I created the poem, so I painted it. The poem below is about THAT place.

That place
The way I remember you
Only visible when I squint
As though editing memory into sharpness.

But still
This place, with its institutions
Single questions and bottom lines
That commodify and exploit our humanness,

As though
Driveways and four-ways, dividing
Actually slice apart our inter-connection
While we withstand drought and heat, as one.

I digress
Across oceans and colonial borders
Place after place after place
None of them, though, hold that feeling of home:

So tender,
She cradles our soreness with her own.
Walls repainted, doors unlocked, owls nested
Her music dances across treetops and facades

To brighten the way back home.

Sisters. 2021. 11x15 inches. Mixed media acrylic on paper. SOLD

This piece is an ode to the many inspiring and supportive women in my life and the world. To begin, I wrote a poem (below) and then drew the poem onto the paper using a stick. Those letters and words then became ‘shape guides’ to which I responded with layering and mark-making, until these three women emerged.

Wild; masked but free, tussled hair
She faces you; the world.
Her cat perched, a part of her,
Gazing imminently; He sees you.
Is that defiance? Or love’s fierceness?
Comfortable in herself, too hard to label,
Though the world pastes its words onto her skin.
She’s occupied with bigger things,
Stencilled into her fabric.
Ladders, boxes and shapes,
All bouncing and galloping towards her,
Like society’s little quirks,
Small only by comparison to her coiffure and floating heart.

Homage to Chagall. 2020. Acrylic and mixed media on canvas. 16 x 20 in.

When plans to reunite with Australian family in 2020 were shelved due to COVID, my mum, artist Jennie Bell, and I began virtual hangouts where we would catch up and paint. This piece is one such product of this time together.

I began the piece by glueing materials to the canvas, including the lyrics of a Leonard Cohen song I was enjoying, and then painting with colour and shape, not knowing what will emerge. Listening and responding, step by step, this floating scene with a jug, skull and bird emerged.

Patch. 2021. Acrylic on canvas. 16x20 inch. SOLD.

I created this painting in January 2021 with the guidance of Nicola Newman in one of her beautiful workshops. I was going through a rough patch and took some time to rest and explore in painting. It was a special time and I was so grateful for the space and Nicola’s nurturing from across the ocean.