I am a former museum director and emerging interdisciplinary artist, working in watercolor, acrylics, oils, or fiber.   My most recent works explore the “the feminine sublime,” which feminist scholar Barbara Freeman describes as “womb-centric.” Freeman suggests that the endless cyclic movements of waves and tide, and the dark mystery that surrounds us as we descend into the unfathomably deep ocean are symbolic of the womb. This link is strengthened by the fact that all life originated in the ocean, just as human life originates in the womb. We are water-based creatures and we develop into our human form protected by the water in our mothers’ wombs. 60% of our human bodies is composed of water. Each night, we exhale water into the air around us. When we are overwhelmed by emotion, salty water overflows our eyes and slides down our cheeks.

The sublime has been described as signifying “unpresentable excess,” something beyond our understanding, something limitless and overwhelming at first sight. My paintings use the limitless, mysterious qualities of water as a metaphor for introspection, for “going deep” to listen to the sounds within ourselves. When we leave the solid footing of the earth to plunge into the ocean, we float weightlessly, we block out the noise of civilization, we experience something new and deep that we cannot experience in the everyday man-made world. It can be peaceful and calming, or overwhelming and terrifying. So too, is the experience going deep into our psyche. We can find peace in deep meditation when we block out the noise of our everyday lives. We also can go deep into our own minds to hear the noise within ourselves. Becoming fully aware of the traumas and memories that are buried deep within in our psyches can also be a deeply disturbing experience.

I am interested in using the theme of water as a springboard to consider these experiences, and to observe the conflicts between the rectilinear, finite, neatly organized world of our everyday lives, and the limitless, amorphous, mysterious, chaotic unknown in the depths of the oceans, and the hidden depths of our souls.