From the lakeside studio I am drawn into nature and inspired.  Such beauty, light, and wonder leave me humbled.  And yet, as I take the inspiration of the landscape and begin to paint, it is not simple beauty that emerges.  My act of painting pushes me beyond the lovely, the easy.  Just as nature destroys itself to be reborn, my work undergoes a similar natural process of evolution, death, and rebirth.
 
I begin painting a background that has been influenced by the marvel of nature such as the shining sunset reflecting in the water or billowing clouds moving across the sky. Once the background painting is completed I begin to disrupt that cherished image of a memory by meticulously painting lines into a woven textile covering.   At times the intersecting lines are painted tightly forcing viewers to stay on the outside and barely able to see the landscape underneath.      The covering suffocates the land  and it can not breathe.   Then in another painting the web splits open to larger passageways, the background comes to the foreground, (a play between positive and negative) and one can see larger vistas of what lies beneath.     

Sometimes I weave different thicknesses of cotton yarns on a loom and, when completed, will place the weaving as a covering over the surface of the landscape or a textured ground.  Sometimes these weavings are buried with paint and at other times they become modulated, moving in and out of the painting.  There may be a time when I disrupt the weaving and pull out each line of thread until only crevices of intersecting lines remains.    While immersing myself  in painting I think about whether barriers act to protect or keep us isolated, or whether coverings keep us warm, safe, hidden or become suffocating?  The intent for my work has evolved into a complex dialogue surrounding identity in relation to physical and psychological barriers.