One Ray, Three Bars
Acrylic and glitter on canvas
60” x 60”
2014

Briefly describe the work you do.

I paint—acrylic on canvas on panel. My paintings are hard-edge geometric abstractions with some elements from light and space and color theory. I use glitter for light/color-shifts and I use color for the afterimage. The viewer can, with a glance, get what the painting is about but with a slightly extended involvement, they can get more out of it. To experience the color/light-shift, one must move around a piece, and for the afterimage, one must take the time to stare into a point on the painting for around 30 seconds and then glance at a white wall. That effect never gets old for me. It’s an apparition that appears out of nowhere, and the boldness of the colors…even though I know exactly what color it is going to be without having to stare, the way your eye can create that glow is still a novelty for me, after so many years. It surprises me how many people don’t know about it! It’s really fun to be the one to show them for the first time!

Tell us about your background and how that has had an influence on your work and on you as an artist.

I went on one of the early Venice Art Walks back in the mid-80’s while I was taking GE classes at Santa Monica College. I sent notes out to the artists I liked, offering my services as a studio assistant, and they called! By the time I was accepted to Otis I was working for some of my favorite artists and I turned down the offer from Otis. Because I was around the artists I had chosen for myself, I can’t say what came first, the chicken or the egg, but all of those artists I worked for have influenced me. I think all but one of the artists worked out of their home studio so the assistant becomes more than just an employee; you are part of their private lives and there’s a much deeper level of involvement.If you really want to take it back, my father did commercial real estate here and in Texas and my mother was a stay-at-home mom but if she had pursued her interests, I think she would have been a designer of some type. Terence Conran’s The House Book was our bible and she was (and still is) a prolific weaver. One day a huge loom was delivered to our house which remained in the middle of the living room until my mother moved to Topanga, where it now lives in her weaving studio along with many more looms. She was always redoing a room in our house. Cox Paints on Santa Monica Blvd. was our second home where we pored through wallpaper books (Schumacher, of course) and analyzed paints: “I’m looking for a red with a little more blue” sort of thing.

Four Folds
Acrylic and glitter on canvas
36” x 36” (18” x 18” each)
2015

The concept of the artist studio has a broad range of meanings in contemporary practice. Artists may spend much of their time in the actual studio, or they may spend very little time in it. Tell us about your individual studio practice and how it differs from or is the same as traditional notions of “being in the studio.”

The conceptual part can happen anywhere but once I have the idea and I have worked it out on paper, I need that studio. My process involves many coats of gesso and lots of sanding before the canvas is ready for the paint. The sanding throws dust everywhere, so I have a smaller room in my studio that is dedicated for sanding.The romantic notion of walking across my garden early in the morning with a cup of coffee and going directly to my studio was nice but with two kids and a dog, my life is messier than that. I had a studio at home and I found that the distractions and the isolation were too much to handle, plus I outgrew it. I have a studio in Inglewood now. I love my studio! It’s my sanctuary. I like the control over my space (something I do not get at home), the separation between work and home, and the convenience to galleries. I also look forward to seeing the three artists who work out of other parts of the building. I get a lot more done in that studio than I ever did at home.

What roles do you find yourself playing that you may not have envisioned yourself in when you first started making art?

Since I worked for all those artists, I can’t think of anything that is a surprise but I don’t like being my own salesperson and would like to have a gallery take that part over. For better or worse, I don’t have a computer in the studio so the business side of things suffers from deferred maintenance.

When do you find is the best time to make art? Do you set aside a specific time everyday or do you have to work whenever time allows?

The best time to make art is when I can do it, which is when I’m in the studio, which is when my kids are in school. Because my art career does not secure my position as breadwinner in the house (yet), I take the brunt of the running of the household and the kid-related duties. My goal is to be in the studio four days a week but often something comes up that reduces that to three and sometimes two. I used to get really upset about that but now I know it will still all be there waiting for me when I get back (unless I’m on a deadline. One weekday is reserved for errands, marketing and house/ kid/dog-related appointments. Summer, when the kids are out of school, is tough. This week I will have just one full day in the studio, but next week I will have five full days because both kids will be at sleep-away camp. I love camp! During the school year, I have a nanny two or three days a week to pick up the kids from school and give me some “long days”, which means about 10-5, and on the other days, I work from about 9:30-1:30. It’s not enough, so you can be sure when I’m in the studio, I am working! Every minute is valuable.