This year has brought a big shift in my paintings, its a shift that I have felt the undercurrents of for a while, and really feels like a natural transition in my style. Specifically I am finding myself letting go of much of the botanical imagery in my work, in favor of a more abstract space in which geometric forms have come to take the place of the birds and flowers that once inhabited it.
After coming out of 2012 and 2013 when I had an infant again and was figuring out how to parent 3 kids, 2014 has felt expansive in the studio. Like I'm stretching my arms after a long nap, then standing up and ideas are just pouring out of me. The studio has always been my "happy place", so moving into my first studio space outside of our home since having kiddos (10 years ago!) and now getting into a weekly rhythm of being able to work in my studio alone, has felt deeply luxurious. It has really felt like a year of coming back to myself and my work, that kicked off back in January with my trip to Bali.
I still love and feel drawn to my floating lotuses (don't expect them to fully leave), but now I have begun to feel the work becoming more about pattern and geometric abstraction. Having worked in studio spaces within our home for so many years, for practical reasons I simply could not paint in the free-washy-splashy-way that I had loved exploring when I could make a big mess in my studio! Now I am loving the freedom to drip and run paint everywhere again, and within those layers to explore a wide variety of mark making. I am specifically drawn to the triangle and am enjoying playing with its many variations in layers upon layers of paint.
The triangle has so many beautiful analogies, symbolizing the trinity in religious tradition, as well as the relationship in a marriage between man-woman-god which is one of my personal favorites. Also, having three children I love the symbology of the three sided shape....its just come to hold so much for me.
The layers of color and texture that my work has always been about, seem like they are speaking louder now. When I began to allow myself to let go of the botanical images I felt a lightness in the work, that's how I always know I'm on the right track with something, I feel a lightness inside. My work is really about allowing myself to follow my heart, and part of that is being honest with myself about where my interest lies now.
These pieces are feeling so energetic and vital to me, I just can't help but be excited about this direction. Its not without irony that I was looking through old images recently and realized that this new abstract work is really picking up a dialogue with paintings that I was making back in the early 2000's. Its almost as if I had just stepped away for a bit but now am right back in it and it feels very energized and free. Like with so many things in life, I feel like I have completed a circle, I'm back to one of those places that I have known before but seeing it now through the new eyes of 10 more years of experience.
I can't wait to see where this new direction leads me!
