I’d like to thank Kate Reid at the Royal Artisan in Baker City, Oregon for having me in her gallery as the October featured artist. She has created a beautiful welcoming space I was happy to show my artwork in. There was beer (and wine) served on First Friday and I spoke with so many nice people who were thoughtful and encouraging.
My show is titled, Yes, there was beer. I started these paintings by referencing my mom’s old photographs from horse trail rides with family and friends in the mountains of Eastern Oregon. In my artist statement from the show I talked a little bit about jumping off points this series gave me to move forward with. My Tall Grass Paper-Cuts have grown from this place.
What I mean by Tall Grass is the shape of the clumps of cheat grass growing locally in my high desert climate. I’ve been translating grasses into stencils I freehand cut for many years. I use some sort of grass shape in almost all of my paintings. I currently have four varieties of grass masking symbols I mix and match.
Creating layers in my paintings requires a lot of work with paper that may not be apparent when viewing a finished piece. I’ve recently been working on creating a shift with the shape of a painting by using my stenciling/masking shapes.
When I cut stencils from different types of paper with my scissors and X-acto knife I get handmade objects to spray through, trace, reuse, or modify. I like how the Paper-Cuts are bringing my interests in collage, symbol development, and paper work forward.
Grasses used to be small pieces of a whole. Now they’re front and center as finished paintings. My Paper-Cuts are still very new. I’m working on what they will become.
I wrote more about my developing practice in From creating paintings to building an art practice that I love