Survivor (Hands off my pup). 12 x 12 inches (Framed dimensions 13x13x1.5 inches). Acrylic and collage media on wood panel. SOLD.
Each Winter at the Año Nuevo seaside, one of the most magnificent animal migration events takes place: the Northern Elephant Seals return for mating and birthing season. Thousands of elephant seals cover the beach and frolic in the sea. A loud chorus of bellows and grunts provides the backdrop to a show of bull males combating for their right to stay and the affection of females. I will never forget the experience of seeing this.
Nor will I forget their history. By the end of the 1800s, only 50-100 elephant seals were left, after being hunted for their blubber. I think of the terror they had been through, seeing their kin slaughtered as they reached the brink of extinction. The seals were subsequently granted protected status and their population recovered. It seems almost poetic that, after their exploited experience following the Spanish colonization, these seals have colonized the beach and island at Año Nuevo State Park.
The use of mixed media in this acrylic painting brings forth a texture that honors the elephant seal hair and outer skin layers that molt, and to the sand-storms that rise during their fights.
Are you awake yet? 12 x 12 inch. Acrylic and mixed media on wood panel. SOLD.
I made this painting with love and joy for its owner. I based it upon the owner's favourite colour, creating a magical portrait of their sweet new cat. With both of us being bike lovers, I collaged bicycle magazines in the earlier layers. It was a lot of fun!
You gave me the world. Acrylic and mixed media on wood panel, 12x12 inches. SOLD.
This painting is inspired by the little birds that live, play and sing in my small courtyard. I enjoy watching the birds sit on the fence watching me, so in this painting I created a whole new world for them to enjoy. Instead of the units/houses and concrete squeezed closely together, this bird gets to admire a fantastical sky from which the sun’s brilliance lights all that regards it.
In giving these birds a new world, I realise how they have already given me the world, right here where I am.
My companion. 11 x 14 inches. Acrylic mixed media on paper. SOLD.
This horse became my companion as I painted it, following an intuitive process where the painting showed me what it wanted to become. At the time, my heart was heavy with the world - with war, pain, death, injustice and unexpected changes for our household. This horse met the heart of our times with wisdom, grace, power, spirit and sensitivity.
Read about and see the intuitive process that created this painting in this blog post.
Who, me? 11 x 14 inches (framed dimensions 16 x 18.5 inches). Acrylic and collage on paper.
I created this painting through an intuitive process, allowing it to become the whimsical cat it seemed to want to be. (I initially thought this would be a painting of water! I’m often surprised when letting the painting show me where to go). Hints of the Fall season show in the leaves, while the blue kitty playfully looks back at you, the viewer. To be human is to have interdependence with the more-than-human - and that can be a joyful experience.
There are many layers in this painting, and various kinds of mixed media to bring the cat’s fur and the flora to life.
Bay Area Bunny. 11 x 14 inches (matted in 16 x 20 inch frame). Acrylic and collage on paper. SOLD
Description: I created this piece after a hike along the Bay Trail, where I saw a jackrabbit frolicking and jumping near the water. It was so fun using the ‘lost and found’ approach to create it, which is an intuitive painting process taught to me by my artist mother to see what a painting wants to become. At the ‘masking stage’ (where I tape over sections, continue to paint, then remove the tape to see a new composition), a rabbit emerged. I nurtured that vision until what you see in this painting.
Professor Bow Bow. 12 x 12 inches (Framed dimensions 13x13x1.5 inches). Acrylic and modeling compound on wood panel.
In this painting, I seek to capture the sophistication and playfulness of the cat companions in our lives. I intentionally painted in black and white to hone in on this feline’s shape and attentiveness. The texture in this painting brings the cat’s fluffiness to life.
I am intrigued how an animal’s face can be a way for humans (especially of Western cultures) to find empathy and connection with animals. Is this indicative of a human need to see ourselves in an animal before we are able to recognise them as related? If it is, what does that tendency tell us about how we relate to the more-than-human world?
For our Sins. 12 x 12 inches. Acrylic on wood panel. SOLD.
My joy and love for our resident hummingbird inspired this piece. When I began painting her, I was overcome with fear of what another climate-change induced fire season might mean for her and our animal kin - and humanity. Where would the animals go, if their territory is destroyed and air spoiled by choking wildfire smoke?
The flames rising in this painting echo my fear of and anger with humanity’s reckless sacrificing of our animal kin. These birds calm and inspire me.
Despite their tiny size, their tiny beaks, their body’s rapid use of energy - they are beautifully alive, embracing all they can do.
It’s simply not who we are. 2021. Graphite on paper, 9x12in. To purchase go here.
I sketched this thinking of the nearly 30,000 Haitian migrants who had passed through a camp on the banks of the Rio Grande in Texas when in September 2021, some migrants had bought food in Mexico. When crossing the river to return to the US, US border force used their horses and in some instances, long reins, to chase and turn them back.
Many of the migrants had been hoping to seek asylum in the US but the Biden administration instead deported thousands of migrants back to Haiti. The migrants have been treated as some kind of problem to hide, to send away, with a narrative that how they were treated is “not who we are”. But there is a history and recurring pattern in which the US is implicated.