CURRENT WORK IN PROGRESS

This section includes highlights of some of my current work in progress. If you have any questions about my work and approach, media inquiries or would just like to come by my studio for a cup of tea,  please feel free to message me through CONTACT on the HOME page or at (604) 812-6509.  I always welcome visitors!

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​"Weaving the Chronicles of my Past in a Dewdrop World". Mixed media. 42" x 48". 2023

​​The Japanese poet. Kobayashi Issa once wrote:

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“This dewdrop world - is a dewdrop world, and yet, and yet…”

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Embracing Kintsugi - the art of ‘golden joinery’ I rub the cracks with iridescent gold and mica pigment. Creating these golden veins chronicles my imperfect past and is a reminder of the beauty of human fragility.  I weave linen by hand then crack grout to create tactile skins.  Using a hammer and chisel I chip away then patiently mend, saturating them in acrylic paint. This dewdrop metaphor is a reflection of life in a world of instability - stability, adversity - fortitude, suffering - beauty.

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Ebb and flow are two phases of the tide, the ebb being the outgoing phase where the tide drains away from the shore and the flow is the incoming phase when the water rises again.  Sarah Finney states that “Life is full of Ebbs and Flows…that we need the contrast between the two so that we can learn to take more care of ourselves.  We cannot always be in a state of flow, nor can always be in a state of ebb.  We need them both.”
Before COVID – 19, I confess my life was quite formulaic.  I have a husband and three children and I realize now our lives were overscheduled.  Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays - Studio, Tuesdays and Thursdays - teaching preschool mixed media classes for the City of Burnaby and the majority of the nights during the week and weekends were filled with kids’ hockey games, badminton, baseball tryouts and weaving classes.  I was the Queen of lists, having to-do lists for Studio, for Teaching and for each child. This defines my previous “Ebb”.  This frozen time or newly found “Ebb” during the wake of COVID -19 has allowed me to reconnect with my inner self and realize the little things to be grateful for: time, health, family, friends, baking, producing new work and my new discovery of watching NetFlicks. (yes, I did not watch television) Perhaps this new form of “Ebb” is a time of letting go of scheduled time for “Flow” to happen naturally and seeing this uncertain period as a transition of what was and what is to come.  I believe in embracing this time with kindness for one another and optimism.
During this time, “gratitude” comes to mind and those in the past that have helped me discover my path in art making - my mentors.  During my stay in Japan more then 20 years ago, I met an 85 year old painter named Sugimura - san.  We met in a local coffee shop and our relationship became a five- year mentorship of weekend visits to his studio.
The piece, “The Study of Cobalt and Ultramarine” is inspired by his ideas of the colour Blue.  Coming from a lineage of fishermen, he shared many childhood stories of the sea.  He spent a lot of his childhood on a fishing boat with his father and grandfather observing the seas and was obsessed with the colour blue.

“The delicate balance of mentoring someone is not creating them in your own image, but giving them the opportunity to create themselves.” Steven Spielberg

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Currently working on three large scale pieces inspired by my stay in Japan from 1998 - 2003.  These pieces will be dedicated to the three artists and mentors that have shaped my work today.  I am grateful for their teachings.

I look back now and I feel that Japan was key in shaping the work that I produce now.  I believe that simply diving into our genuine passions keep the work personalized and creative discipline allow the work to evolve on a regular basis.  Mentors or other artists who share the same sensibilities are also key.  I have been fortunate enough to have many mentors in my life that have always passed on their words of wisdom. In Japan I was fortunate to have three mentors who taught me the importance of finding who you are as an artist.  At our monthly visits to their studio spaces and coffee shops they shared many stories and many personal experiences as working artists and I thank them for their guidance.   A printmaker -  Shegheki Tomura, a painter - Eiichi Sugimura and a painter and printmaker - Hisashi Momose.  All were forty years older and have been professional artists for more then two decades.

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