I knew when we bought a house and studio on seven acres outside of Santa Fe, the austere and magnificent beauty of the high desert would bring great changes in my life and in my work. In contrast, the time I spend in the lush green and humid climate of Florida will always be a part of my voice, but the wide open spaces of New Mexico have allowed me to tap into a more experimental and introspective vision in my work. I think it is also part of my turning 50 and examining how I really want to live my life as I confront my own mortality.

My most recent work is a fusion of overt realism and abstraction. I enjoy the meticulous, exquisite depiction of nature, paired with the abstract exploration of various media, luminous surfaces and the interaction of colors to express emotional content.

A new series which I have begun just for this show combines all my many years of working in different media, combining the oil over egg tempera work, graphite drawings over acrylic and geometric patterns in  different acrylic mediums inspired by Seminole embroidery and beadwork

My very meticulous drawings have led me to experiment in rendering them in a mixture of different media: egg tempera and India ink, watercolor, pencil, graphite, oil, encaustic and intaglio printmaking, often showing the crosshatching drawing that formed the underpainting in my previous oil over egg tempera work. The experience of scratching into the hard ground on the surface of my printing plates also inspired me to begin scratching into the surface of my paintings which is especially apparent in “Icarus,” one of the most abstract pieces thus far from the “Staghorn Series,” which is a metaphor for the aging process from youth to old age.

The more experimental and introspective vision in my work, I think, is part of my turning 50 and examining how I really want to live my life as I confront my own mortality. As I work with different ways of mixing media and the unpredictability of the results, I find myself opening up to a new level of letting go to vulnerability, allowing my vision to evolve in unexpected ways. It is helping me to come to terms with the fragility all living things encounter in the aging process.