"Paradise Squandered"
October 10 – November 4, 2007

This Land, Our Land
October 10 – November 4, 2007

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our heart away, a sordid boon!
The Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
–William Wordsworth-

Wordsworth’s poem describes my state of mind after spending two years constructing the works for this show. While the poem reflects the emotions I sometimes felt while pairing light bulbs with bones, forks with purses, and Christmas lights with asthma inhalers, the process itself was more tranquil, more therapeutic. Each work is built around real or symbolic objects that seem unrelated to each other, but which reflect the impact of humankind upon our land. The process of constructing drawings and sculpture was far from disheartening because I found much joy in combining unusual forms and identifying shared themes among disparate objects. My sense of humor slips in at the same time I ask viewers to open their mind to the questions I raise in each surreal story about the American landscape.

Touchstone Gallery
406 7th St. NW, 2nd FL
Washington, DC 20004
202-347-2787
www.touchstonegallery.com

Nature House
July 8 – August 3, 2007
Opening Reception: July 8, 2 - 4 pm

The collages and drawings in this exhibit re-present the landscape in an unusual way. They reveal a reality that goes beyond the natural world we perceive through atypical juxtapositions of elements within each composition. Altars and animals, for instance, or a tree made from a little book. The fun for me is in trying out unusual combinations of forms and solving the mysteries of the links between them. After each picture is finished, I see connections between parts of Earth’s web of life as well as links between the physical and spiritual worlds. In some, the names of extinct or endangered species are written over and over, a litany of sorrow, a prayer that killing these creatures will cease. The viewer is invited into a contemplation of the wonder of the natural world, humanity’s dependence upon it, and humanity’s puzzling destruction of it. While some works are collaged images, others are rendered primarily through drawing or painting, with just a bit of collage and just a bit of color.

The Hoyt Institute of Art
124 East Leasure Avenue
New Castle, PA 16101
724-652-2882
www.hoytartcenter.org

Out of Balance
May 24 - June 21, 2007

Reacting to human interaction with the natural world around me, I link up images of seemingly innocuous human made items: tree-shaped deodorizers and tree stumps; SUV and polar bear; real birds and fake birds; whales and submarines. Each surreal pairing implies a connection that is often hidden or denied as we go about living a fast-paced life. These collaged and painted landscapes embrace a language of easily understood objects such as trees, ledger pages, fish, air fresheners, axes and birds and invite viewers to contemplate their own connections to the natural world. Humorous first impressions lead viewers to subsequent layers of meaning in which the insidious power of humankind over all species becomes apparent.

Woman Made Gallery
685 N. Milwaukee Avenue
Chicago, IL 60622
312-738-0400
www.womanmade.org