Danse Macabre

Digital photo collage using vintage photos, watercolor and ink pen.

Look What Happened!

This painting is based off of a found photo. The photo depicts what appears to be a man tossing a baby in the air. By painting this moment, the artist brings out a sense of emotional tension and ambiguity, attempting to dive under the surface of the original image.

Baby Being Tossed

Through the medium of oil paint my work captures imagery of the everyday in New York City to highlight the dystopian reality of 2020. My practice focuses on the screen as a surface of mediation, protection, isolation, safety, and fear. Together we acknowledge the courage of our essential workers during these unprecedented times, and their protection of and service to the community at large. I recognize the screen as a barrier and charged index that both separates and unites us. This physical boundary functions as a space from which to consider our privilege and reflect upon our position as human beings during these unprecedented times. It is a barrier that mediates the body and incites questions regarding human desire and fear: the inability to touch during a global health crisis and the longing to connect.

Untitled (07/16/2020)

My First House

This Must Have Been Love

oil on paper, 101 x 134 cm
pencil on paper, 42 x 29,7 cm

Manta Manta

Using fashion model images of women from popular lifestyle magazines to create a series of Quarantine Collages produced within the lockdown period in Britain during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. 

The artist renders the selected model as a faceless mannequin, taking away their identity by replacing the entire skin area of the image with visuals of a variety of materials and foods such as hair, chocolate, plants, clothing, interior house plans, window blinds, toilet paper, stone, bubble wrap, household waste and laminate flooring. 

“These surfaces infiltrate the body (like a virus), replacing and destabilising the model’s identity, persona and vitality. As we are all now so much more aware and fearful of the once benign but protective environmental surfaces now potentially threatening our actual survival. These collages represent the mass shift in World perception of personal and environmental contact with dangerous yet invisible alternate life forms”. - Quote: G. Brooks

Simultaneously, the former fashion model takes on a new role: She becomes the protagonist of the artwork, the lead role in a film noir or a kind of doll with which the artist ‘dresses up’ and seems to ‘arrange’ in a playful and somewhat slightly disconcerting way. The mannequin or doll is used as a ‘readily available’ vehicle for the artist to mobilise her emotions and personal experience of the 12-week quarantine and lockdown period.

Attached are X8 selected collages from a series of 19 (titles listed below)

Summer Body (Hair)
Summer Body (Chocolate)
Striped Out
When Lockdown Ends
Going Shopping
Empty Pool
All the Clothes I won’t be Wearing this Season
Interior Plan
View from the Inside (Venetian Blinds)
All I Need (Apparently)
Venturing Out: Feeling a bit Laminate Flooring (Inside-Out / Outside-In)
Striped Out (Variation 2)
Still Crazy After All These Weeks
Bubble Wrap (Protection Infection)
Summer Body (Landfill)
Striped Out (Variation 3)
Woman Picking a Lemon (Lockdown- leaving a bitter taste in my mouth)
Going Out Grey
Striped Out (42,461+) Lockdown, Britain


Quarantine Collage Series

"Baby Please Don´t Die"
watercolor and crayon on paper, 
33 x 33 cm/ 29, 7 x 42 cm

(Salvation/ Fragment)

Despite the negative connotation to the prayer-like repetition, it contains a humbling interest:

The constant care for, and with that, the unconditional devotion to a matter (worthy of repetition).

In the series  “Baby Please Don´t Die“ this selfless care almost becomes a panic request (please) of adherence (don´t die) to a not quite clearly defined entity (baby).

The drawings each show ambiguously assignable body fragments, which, only pooled as a series, express this desire in its full vividness. 

The fragility of a fragment, which provokes -especially through its incompleteness -the attendance of a fading presence and seems, because of that, even more worthy of preservation. 

The repetition of its parts  turns the whole into an obsession, because merely through the repetitive element the essence of the entirety stays constant. Because only the (sensually tangible) repetition of an idea inspires the thought, to reiterate these beyond any carnal manifestation.
But is there even a salvation of the entirety?
Or does the neurotic ceremony of drawing only serve as a remedy and strategy of self-locating and self-embedding in reality?

Baby Please Don´t Die

This One Has To Be Perfect!

site specific room installation
glasspainting, drawing, c-print

Exposing Living Things

Central to "imaginary friends 2" is the main "character" reaching out to others, who appear over the entire composition, representing all aspects of life. The piece is an abstract composition created with colorful pastels in shades of red, pink, orange, green, blue, and gray. The piece features circular and linear elements, creating a sense of movement and energy across life on the paper. 

imaginary friends 2

"lost soul 4" combines three butterflies floating across a vibrant background that features blended washes of yellow, blue, pink, and orange. Combined they create an energetic and dynamic atmosphere. Overlaying this backdrop are black, looping lines that intertwine across the canvas highlighting the hearts of each butterfly. The interplay of colors and lines gives the piece a sense of movement and rhythm.

lost soul 4

The artwork features a symmetrical design with two sets of multicolored, wavy lines primarily in shades of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple, resembling butterfly wings. In the center, a small red heart is incorporated into the design. The artwork is intersected by three vertical and two horizontal gray lines, providing a structured contrast to the vibrant and fluid colors.

lost soul 3

The artwork is an abstract piece featuring a vibrant blend of colors and textures. Dominant colors include shades of green, pink, blue, and orange, which are applied with a mixed media approach, possibly using pastels or paint. The composition has a dynamic feel, with sweeping strokes, circular forms, and layered colors creating a sense of movement and depth. The overall effect is lively and expressive, inviting the viewer to explore its myriad hues and patterns.

imaginary friends 4

Dominating "imaginary friends 3” is a dark, sweeping form in the center, representing a person with Parkinson’s. They are surrounded by radiating colors that represent the energy reaching out to imaginary friends and create an energetic, almost explosive effect. The circular shapes interspersed throughout represent the friends, adding an additional layer of movement and contrast. The artwork features a blend of vibrant colors, including pinks, blues, greens, and yellows. The use of irregular brushstrokes and overlapping hues gives the piece a textured, almost ethereal quality.

imaginary friends 3

Installation view ‘Many Ways Home’ 2023, Nonage Gallery, Singapore

Many Ways Home

Kleptomania

Brown Girl In A Ring (self portrait)

Attention Span On Spam

Taking Turns To Speak

Little Miss Strange

From There To Here And Here To There, Funny Things Are Everywhere

No One Alerted You

The Ringmaster’s Retreat

A Curious Monogram

Surface Agitation

Studio Sydney 2023

Art Pedestal (Issues & Opportunities)

Learning Without Shoes

The Carnival of The Animals (Finding Mikey)

Installation view El Nucleo Residency, Spain, 2023

El Nucleo Residency

Diluting Delusion

Installation view ARCO Madrid 2024, Galeria Ponce+Robles. Acquired by Fundación María Cristina Masaveu Peterson

Room Is Home

Building An Immune System

Interpretive piece showing the dilemma of being a mixed blood Native American and walking in two worlds.

Matter of Interpretation

 “The Mayor’s Art Initiative” kicked off in Summer of 2022, and consists of themed art shows hanging in the Mayor of Topeka’s office for 3 months. Art is then brought to 785 Arts for an artists reception, mayoral recognition, and public sale. Curated by Lisa LaRue-Baker, 785 Arts

Mayor’s Art Initiative

Join us at NOTO Arts Center Morris Gallery for August and September 2023 as part of a NOTO Land Acknowledgement project. For this special exhibition artists were asked to submit art illustrating the Three Sisters story from many Native American tribal cultures, as well as depictions of the origins of North Topeka limited to the Gonville-Pappan sisters and the Kaw Reserves. Curated by Lisa LaRue-Baker, 785 Arts.

Three Sisters of NOTO

Explore art and culture of the Indigenous people and artists who made and continue to make Topeka and Shawnee County their home. See the _DoPiKa: A Land Acknowledgment_exhibit in the Alice C. Sabatini Gallery Sept 8 – Nov 26, 2023\. This exhibit is a collaboration with Lisa LaRue-Baker, Cherokee tribal citizen and Gallerist of 785 Arts.

  
Featured artists

You will find art in a variety of mediums and styles in _DoPiKa_. Explore abstract paintings, mixed-media fiber art, photography, contemporary paintings, jewelry, sound art, digital art, beadwork and textiles from the following artists:

* Joe Don Brave (Osage) painting
* Lydia Cheshewalla (Osage) digital art
* Michael Daugherty (Eastern Shawnee) painting
* Gayle Dowell (Osage) jewelry
* Benjamin Harjo Jr. (Absentee Shawnee/Seminole) painting
* Robert Hicks (Pyramid Lake Paiute) digital photography
* Joan Hill (Creek-Cherokee) painting
* Lisa LaRue-Baker (Cherokee Nation) mixed media
* America Meredith (Cherokee Nation) painting
* Wendy Ponca (Osage) textile and painting
* Konrad Pumpkin Seed (Oglala Lakota Sioux) mixed media
* Emily Westfall (Citizen Potawatomi) painting

  

DoPiKa: A Land Acknowledgement

Vintage photo in a digital collage to make a point.

Residential School 

Vintage photo collage, hand tinted with watercolor, word with black ink pen. In tribute to Aaron Douglas.

We Should Give a Damn

Pop Goes the NDN

Vintage photo of Nez Pearce man painting medicine symbols on his lodge are merged with a modern mural on metal doors.

His Medicine Lives On

Merciless Indian Savages

Venice Totem

Vintage photo, hand tinted with watercolors, embellished with basket made by artist.

Guiding Spirit

Mannequin Party

Blue

Dinner on Sunset Blvd.

Street Artist

On Silver Pond

Bet He Has a Story

Train Depot

Cornhusk doll, handmade clothing, handmade Cherokee Baskets.

The Basket Maker

Taking a Break

Cherokee Doublewall Basket with colorful silicon zip ties.

Colorplay

Contemporary Cherokee Doublewall Basket implementing reclaimed copper from the Kansas Capitol Dome. Commissioned by the State of Kansas.

Capitol Offense

Contemporary Doublewall Basket made with black dyed commercial Reed and stainless steel zip ties.

Industrial Basket

Gv Ge Yu I

Using commercial Reed, dye and stainless steel

Stainless Band Doublewall Basket

Contemporary Cherokee Doublewall Basket using commercial Reed, plastic phone cord holders, and puff acrylic paint.

Meltdown

Upcycled antique doll head to show the mixed-blood dilemma of living in two worlds. Mounted on vintage hat stand.

Contemporary Cherokee Doublewall Basket using commercial Reed, stainless steel zip ties and plastic phone cord holders, depicting people of color behind bars.

Incarceration

Cornhusk and Rattan Woven Doll

Doublewall Cherokee Basket

Doublewall Basket

2 Cherokee Doublewall Baskets

In 2023, I attended the Mudhouse Artist Residency in Crete, Greece. There I explored changing my artistic approach. Always drawing from the patterns of plants as inspiration, but I experimented with loosening up and playing with the point at which an art piece can be considered “finished.” For this piece, I was inspired by the plants growing in the cracks of the Gournia ruins. Here the unfinished edges evoke the same sense of rawness and ruggedness of the plants breaking through crumbling ruins.

Gournia

In 2023, I attended the Mudhouse Artist Residency in Crete, Greece. There I explored changing my artistic approach. Always drawing from the patterns of plants as inspiration, but I experimented with loosening up and playing with the point at which an art piece can be considered “finished.” For this piece, I was inspired by the concept of “resist refinement.” I challenged myself to reevaluate what is considered beautiful in my fiber art. This is an extremely minimal interpretation of the Greecian landscape, and while not as full of fibers as previous pieces, I still consider it a fully finished piece as I “resist refinement.”

Resist Refinement

This is a continuation of the ideas I explored in my 2022 piece, Lichen Zero Five. The earlier piece was inspired by the sense of movement of lichen growing on volcanic rock during a trip to Iceland. This newer piece, Licken Zero Seven, explores what a warmer interpretation might look like of the harsher Icelandic climate. This piece uses warm colors (browns and off-whites) and breaks past the boundary of a frame or a traditional tapestry rectangular shape, and it still recreates the patterns of lichen climbing across a natural landscape.

Lichen Zero Seven

While out on the trail, I constantly stumble upon mushrooms growing on trees and fallen logs. The repeating form of all these different varieties makes their own unique ruffle visual language. I used crochet and weaving to recreate the patterns made by the mushrooms. By using a neutral palette, I chose to create a sense of calm and warmth, just like I felt during this favorite moment in nature.
  
  

Mushroom Weaving Zero Three

I attended an art camp program with Light Grey Art Lab in 2021, where I visited Iceland and explored the Snæfellsnes Peninsula with 12 other artists from around the world.

  
During one of these mini-adventures, I learned lichen grows 1-2mm in diameter a year. I was blown away by the fact that these rocks covered in lichen are visual records of YEARS of history. I forced myself to slow down, observe, and truly appreciate an aspect of nature I probably would’ve just walked right past.

  
This fiber art piece mixes weaving, crochet, and needle felting techniques to recreate the patterns and sense of movement made by lichen growing on volcanic rock.

Lichen Zero Five 

To create this piece, the artist cut her own abstract intuitive paintings into pieces and rearranged them on wood panel. 

Repurposed Shreds

My painting practice considers haptic sensations and the representation and embodiment of touch. I create a space in which desire, tactility and the digital and real body are in play. I explore mediated corporeality, at turns rendering the body into an abject and sensuous landscape filtered through myriad screens. 

This is How the Flesh Gets Tamed

Aching

Untitled (07/22/2020)

An oil painting based off of a found photo. The photo depicts two people engaged in a game of Connect 4.

Game Night Duo

Oil painting based off of a found photo. The photo depicts a group of people at what appears to be a home gathering. One figure is gesturing while the others listen and watch. The artist is interested in exploring group dynamics and relationships, imagining the complex stories and emotions existing within the image of this candid moment.

Storyteller

An oil painting based off of a candid photo of fish mongers in Pike Place Market, Seattle. The photo depicts the fish mongers cleaning up at the end of the day.

End of Day Pike Place

An oil painting based off of a found photo. The photo depicts a group of people standing outside at night. Knowing absolutely nothing about the people in the photo, where they are, when it was taken, and what they are doing, the artist paints to explore the obscurity, mystery, and strangeness that the photo evokes for her.

Singing Man

"My Family Fun Evening" was taken by Helen Lisa and posted here February 23, 2019.

My Family Fun Evening

Horse Girl

Kiss

No Place

1970's BBQ

Ambiguous Figure

Deserter

Pass By

Colonial Hotel

Atlas of the Essence is a result of a critical examination of images of the mainstream media, their perception and the artistic research for counter-images. Conflicts, catastrophes, political scandals and terror dominate the media. The works of the ongoing research project break with our understanding of the image and unite a multitude of existing photographs of individual events in one image, creating chaos, ambiguities, gaps and new insights through superimposition.

The third part of the series ATLAS OF THE ESSENCE is about enviromental issues. It includes works about mining, which not just has a big influence in the enviroment but also deals with unhuman working conditions. Other works of this part deal with pipelins and the resulting damage in nature and enviroment and further human made enviromental issues.
The works shown are of the third part and are about enviromental issues. They include 
"Essence of Copper Mining"  2020
"Essence of the Ijen Sulfur Mine" 2020

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