I have always loved magazines. I love the feel of them, the glossy, pages that feel so good under my fingers, the huge September issues that are inches thick, the different papers and inks that sometimes bleed. From Vogues and Playboy's from the '70's to the NY Times magazine sections. I search for familiar images and aim to strip away, to layer, frame, reframe and explore the spaces between our public and private worlds.
I grew up going to museums and galleries to see art with my parents. My father and I have a game we played, still do. We imagine that in every museum, gallery, or room, we must pick one piece of art that will come home with us and hang on our wall. One piece that we have to imagine living with and looking at every day. We have to pick one, and only one.
Sometimes it's surprisingly difficult, either I want none of them or I am moved by so many pieces that picking one seems impossible. And sometimes it's easy. I am pulled towards one piece in a room full of art, and barely glance at the rest.
I remember the first time I saw a Robert Rauschenberg mixed media piece at MOMA. I was riveted. Newspaper and collage and paint and found objects, eagle and all.... I couldn't stop looking at it. I feel the same way about Cy Twombly. I can't really even explain it to you. The art they make grabs me somewhere deep inside my gut.
Ever since, I search for art that moves me that way. That grabs my attention from across the gallery, calls me over and demands that I stand in front of it and look. Take it in. Feel something. I am not interested in understanding it, in knowing the story behind it, the whats and whys and whos of it all... I want to feel something and let its story unfold in my mind and become mine.
When I work, I try to follow my heart. I try to allow my instincts to take over and leave my head out of it, see where the colors lead me and what story unfolds as I cut and rip and rearrange the pieces over and over again. My hope is that one of these will speak to you. That you will know the story and understand something in it I may not even know. And it will move you.
