My current work explores the complexity of connections and insight into the subconscious mind. By reacting to each mark I make individually and instinctively, slowly the forms comes to life, connecting to each other to become a whole. Working abstractly, with basic geometric and organic forms, each piece I create has its’ own individual character. Allowing for the process to dictate the end result, I see my work as a creation of maps to the subconscious mind. After the piece is finished and printed, I then cut up the matrix and reassemble the pieces to create more connections, using the negative space around and sometimes within the configured forms.

These collages are infused with the idea of the nomadic life. This was the pattern of my early life starting out in Germany, growing up in Turkey and then coming to the United States. The work brings together all I have gathered from these very different cultures. Added to that is my long time interest in archetypal patters, such as the zigzag pattern, that can be found on Hittite gold vessels, Indian baskets or as tattoos on the faces of Maori chiefs. These patterns seem to be biologically embedded in the human mind. Another influence are the meandering patterns, one pattern flowing into another, found in the work of some Aborigine and African Art.
I use a variety of Japanese papers and walnut and sumi ink to create the patterns that make up these collages.
 

“Sold: The Art of Trophies” is a series of photographs that examines trophy hunting and the objectification of nonhuman animals. I’ve overlaid red “sold dots” onto the animals featured in the photos. By doing so, the animal is represented as a purchased commodity, a mere "trophy" to an outside force. The color red may elicit images of blood and violence or feelings of pain and targeting. Depending on the image, the red may isolate the animal from his/her environment, separating them from a state of naturalness. Further, the red transforms the once solid presence of the animal into something far more spectral; they dematerialize under the shadow of red, disappearing into their fate of lifelessness.The act of placing red over the animals is an act of aggression, and in an artistic sense, exhibits the potential for human control over the animal(s) subjected; they have become targeted trophies, no longer merely beautiful subjects of nature photographs (certainly a form of trophy itself).

North and East Africa have been creative beacons since 1998. Manifold beauty exists there beneath layers of history.

I first traveled on the Cairo Metro in 2003; I simply entered the closest compartment as the train entered the Maadi station. Immediately, I felt misunderstood, because I was a single women traveling in a car filled with men. Soon, I discovered the cars reserved for women and the contrast sparked my curiosity. With my Rolleiflex camera on my lap, I spent days each year riding the Metro to capture images of what is commonplace for Cairennes, yet remains extraordinary to me. The devout women of Lalibela, Ethiopia also captivated me, like angels they pray all day. When juxtaposed with the images from Cairo, these portraits offer a bridge of understanding.

It is not the obvious that attracts me, but rather the silent, liminal zones, ancient whispering places, solitary faces or veiling bodies, and forgotten corners of domestic or urban spaces. I am drawn to quiet beauty.
 

Self identity is a manifestation of beliefs that define who we are rather than what we look like. This is the focus of my work. 
Artists Statement

The content of my art is portraiture, specifically portraiture of women. I would not consider my portraits as traditional in any sense of the word. The over arching concepts within the portraits deal with objectification and non-objectification of the female form with an exploration into the idea of the male gaze.

In John Berger’s book Ways of Seeing he speaks of how over the course of time women have learned to view themselves through their male counterpart’s ‘gaze’. Simply stated, we have learned to objectify ourselves based on the male standards of beauty. As a response to this, my work shows the presence of femininity and the removal or manipulation of the female form either literally or metaphorically.

I paint stories of the human experience. The soul of life demonstrated in depictions of figures interacting within a realm of time, a realm of realities, and with one another. I paint that that is seen and unseen. I depict beauty that exists often after tragedy. I express the plane of existence pictorially divided, fragmented, as the energy and emotion around each being and happening. Often this movement is abstract and often it is literal. I create images from inside myself. I carry them and grow them within me until I create. Most of my paintings are of women and their realities as they relate to the greater human experience. I have worked in oils since my early life and prefer my expressions to be shared in their radiance applied using master techniques."

I grew up in San Diego, in the northern suburbs that were once the providence of coyotes and tomato fields, now an endless sea of terra cotta roofs, fresh asphalt and strip malls. 

Back when I was in elementary school, migrant workers from Mexico and points south would make their home in the canyon directly below my home. As a young boy, these people with their strange language and customs scarred me, but my parents would have none of this, inviting them in for meals and showers, dissolving the difference between “the other” and “us.” 

Borders are nothing but lines, but have been twisted into a different meaning, sometimes protection, often heartbreak. I work in neon, effectively colored lines, which are bent, twisted and manipulated into art.