I am trying to visually represent a sense of my personal spirituality. This spirituality comes from my belief in the secret forces of nature. Sometimes when I am in the woods I imagine that I can hear the trees breathing. When I lie down on the ground I can feel the earth breathe like someone's chest moving up and down and I can hear and feel the earth's heart beat. This is the spirit of nature, the idea that the earth and all things that grow upon it are alive and breathing and seem to take on an anthropomorphic character. This is what my art is about. The fairy is just a body to contain this spirit. It is somethinconcept of spirituality so in the fairy I am trying to represent the imaginary embodiment of the spirit of nature.g to represent the abstract

I am inspired by the fantasy imagery and animism that developed in Austria out of a cultural fear of death resulting from years of cultural, political, and religious unrest. I will discuss some of the themes in Gustav Klimt's work as they are born out of this Austrian legacy. I have also become interested in the spiritual relationship between the painters of the Hudson River School and the American landscape and I have noted some nineteenth century ideas about the negative effects of industrialism on the landscape depicted in the painting of George Innes and also in Klimt's landscapes. I have found inspiration in the work of Joyce Tenneson as her work represents her own lifelong spiritual journey. Finally, I would like to comment on my use of the Van Dyke Brown Process in the creation of my final body of work.

Artist's Statement/ Images

Boyden Gallery Installation

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