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 At the heart of me will always be an Architect. But my path took a difficult turn. After two life saving surgeries for Scheuermann’s Kyphosis, I was severed from my profession as an Architect just as construction began on my last building as Project Architect for the Frost Art Museum in Miami. Little did I know at the time that a journey paralleling Art Therapy would lead me to making art as my path to creative liberation. I had always wanted to paint but my passion for my architecture was all encompassing. My disability changed that career path. There I was: marooned in my own despair and in pain. But then something truly magical happened when I began learning photoshop and was able to express both the pent-up feelings going on inside my head and the healing process happening inside my body. I began creating large format digital prints on cotton rag paper. As each print came out of the digital printing machine, it was like a birth with a little piece of me renewed. I also began using the process to get my mind off my pain by making mandala like works, many of which have the effect of spinning and helped mesmerize me similar to the Hindu and Buddhist traditions use of the mandala to create a sacred space for contemplation and meditation. This explosion of creativity helped get me out of my depression. Learning to use Photoshop gave me a sense of confidence and empowerment. Becoming more confident in my skills, I began to explore many world influences and interests, including Islamic art, African art, Aboriginal art and textile traditions from different cultures around the world to name a few. As my work evolved, I began creating creatures of my imagination I call WHIMSIES: carefree and unencumbered beings free of the constraints of gravity. They are symbols representing stand-ins for me. They move freely in ways that I’m not able to. My mind is able to soar through them, yet I’m just sitting in a chair at a computer moving my hand ever so delicately around. Much of these whimsy works are about motion, speed and the immediacy of being in the moment. My newest works explore the archetypal form of the circle. The circle represents for me, an ability to overcome my struggles with my disability--overcoming the pain, providing a meditative, contemplative space to help me make sense of the world. Intellectually, the secrets of the circle challenge me to recreate the world using a simple language, that when put together, speaks of harmony and balance and color, beauty, simplicity and complexity. All put together these elements provide a healing experience for me which I hope to convey to others and in the process inspire people to overcome their own obstacles.
My art is |
