For me creating art is an expression of freedom , my emotions of the moment and a hope that they stir some recognition of a particular emotion to the viewer. When I first started, I had made an honest connection with my core, embracing it wholly. My masks reflect that initial joy of finally declaring and claiming my creative, God-given nature with a celebration of wild colors, eyes painted wide open, drinking in life and just “being”. They reflect my discovery to express, uninhibited, in any form and any color. The emotions rise unpracticed and unexpected and I indulge them freely until everything explodes out there on the wood in a blaze of color. The colors are not planned and neither are the facial expressions.

“The eyes are the mirror of the soul” and what engages the viewers first, I am told, are the eyes. It is obvious that most of the masks are male as they emit a strong, yang energy. “Zen Bliss” was the first of the gentler masks and reflect the change I have experienced within….a shift that has engaged with my feminine side, once my dominant essence which I had lost and now have found.

Painting these masks has brought a balance between the male and female energies within me. I hope that people will recognize different aspects of themselves, with their own unique perception when they see my work and then claim that specialness as uniquely theirs.

Other works in progress:
Papier mache masks
Collages of found objects on textured paper.