I am a stitch. I run. I obsess. I wobble. I pierce. I function. I heal. Art for me is an intuitive exploration of what lies within the body. I approach the process with great curiosity for making visible that which is invisible. Marks form on the canvas in a kinetic fashion - “I want to touch that. I can already feel it.” I play out this infinite dialogue with fabric and thread, paint and pencils. Using my grandmother’s sewing machine and needles, I piece together strips of linen and cover them with hand stitches. Graphite rubbings made from found objects and garden fragments find their way into the underlayers of the paintings. And marks made with my Grandfather’s medical tools scratch and reveal, suggesting growth, connections and our transformations. These intuitive gestures are my path as a painter. Interweaving strength and fragility. Finding beauty in pain. Providing an invisible embrace which awakens the heart and silences the mind. ---- A recent trip to visit the Confluence project by artist Maya Lin finds it way into a handful of the works in the show. I was quite moved by the Cedar Circle at Cape Disappointment where 7 pieces of driftwood are erected among the living trees suggesting a mixing of past and present and symbolizing the 7 directions recognized by native tradition – north, south, east, west, up, down and within. Rubbings from an ancient cedar tree section become stitched lines and graphite elements among the paint and raw linen.