Artist Statement
Studio shot from November 2020
All horses are sumi ink, house paint and other mixed media on 9x12” watercolor paper.
My horses are sympathetic witnesses to pain; they are emblematic and approachable protectors, guardian angels- gentle and strong, enduring and simple, crude and innocent, wise and therapeutic. They are gods of mercy and my painting them is a commitment of icon veneration.
They are psychological scar tissue - illustrating what is present by representing what is missing. I do not paint them wearing saddles or bridles, they approach the viewer as an unbroken herd, without obligation or coercion. The phrases that accompany each horse are written after meditating with them; there is a ritual for me in listening to what each individual horse wants to say.
My horses are a salve to pain felt by myself and my community- offering a gesture of shelter, of understanding and repose, and an ephemeral, place to be held.