PORTFOLIO > Welcome Home-site specific installation 2018

“Welcome Home” was a site specific installation of paintings, drawings and objects completed between 2016-18. The work was created during a time period of personal upheaval where my art practice was my only way to ground and navigate my grief process. I felt I had worked so hard to create my “perfect” family that when my husband asked for a divorce the shame of failing as something so essential was devastating. I used family photographs as the compositional framework that I combined with fantastical elements to create work imbued with a surreal narrative of resilience. The domestic narratives were activated further with the decision to exhibit the work inside an abandoned Chicago home rather than a traditional gallery space. Once my paintings and drawings were installed, I began to play with the houses energy and alter its surfaces as a means to bind my artwork to the sense of place. The house had its own resilience story as it bore evidence of the family that once lived there: clothing left in the dryer, pots and pans stored in the stove, magnets still on the refrigerator. My artwork, combined with the house as a container and energetic collaborator, created a visual experience that was a unique combination of intimacy, grief, love and defiance. Due to the small scale of the house I only allowed 2 people at a time to view the exhibit. The video documentation of “Welcome Home” mimics the path that viewers took beginning in the basement and leading up to the main floor. I too stayed outside to allow for the experience of the home and my work to dialog with the viewer in solitude. My favorite moments would come when a visitor would stay and talk to me about what they experienced and share feelings about their own family and their own experience around divorce and grief. These moments between myself and others, were the true completion of the art process which transformed shame and isolation into connection.

2021
oil painting portrait on canvas with spooky eyes,contemporary art, figurative art, floral wall paper, girls dressing up
oil on canvas
28" x 32"
2018
self portrait with flowers and snakes
oil on canvas
24" x 24"
2017
surreal painting
oil on canvas
24"x 24"
2018
Stairs
2019
"Mother's Day"
acrylic on
17"x22"
2021
oil painted portrait with face and gloves, wings, contemporary painting, contemporary artist, feminist artist
oil on canvas
24" x 24"
2018
sink
2019
self portrait, figure painting, rose wall paper, stickers, motherhood, oil painting, contemporary art,
oil on canvas
16" x 20"
2017
contemporary oil painting
oil on cardboard
variable
2018
"Dark Hood"
fabric and paint
2021
"Dotty"
waxed dress with oil paint and thread
12"x 23"
2021
self portrait in black line
watercolor on paper
7"x 10"
2018
a house with arms painted on paper
painting on paper
10"x14"
2018
portrait of daughter wearing blue paper eyelashes
watercolor on paper
11" x14"
2018
oil painting on snack box little girl in cowboy hat with boots and a snack
oil on snack box
2018
figurative painting with girl in a tutu
watercolor on paper
2018
self portrait with painted face, contemporary oil painting, snakes, tattoo
oil on board
16"x 20"
2017
floral wall paper with vintage roses, contemporary artist, oil painting, pink and purple
Oil on Board
16" x 20"
2018
 unconventional portrait of my children
oil on canvas
30" x 32"
2017
Self portrait with doll house furniture in my hair with floral background
oil on board
18" x 24"
2017
oil painting, floral, wall paper, vintage, roses, stickers, retro, yellow, abstract, strawberry, unicorn
oil on board
20" x 24
2018
oil portrait with patterned wall paper and paper crown, figurative oil painting, contemporary art contemporary painting
oil on canvas
30" x 32"
2018
oil painting on canvas with roses, abstract painting, vintage wall paper, mark making, interior
oil on canvas
30"x 32"
2018
closet
2019
dark veiled woman, rose wall paper, oil painting, eyes, witch, seer, mourning veil
oil board
20" x24"
2018