Inspiration

My work has grown out of my affinity for open water swimming. I started creating analog and digital collages as a way to capture the intense and beautiful moments that I was experiencing in the water and to give my memories visual form.

I work with texture, color, patterns, and symbolism to evoke the experience of water and all the life that surrounds it. It is import to me to show the personality of the water, its relationship to the land and how it moves and changes. Over time, I have found that my work has evolved beyond swimming, although that is still the focus. My works are as much about a single swim or event as they are about that which I am experiencing at the time when I create the works, combined with memories from my life.

Series

Memory Maps

Memory maps are bird’s eye view, map-like collages that depict the body of water or area of water that I have swum. I tend toward this format to record more formal swims, in order to commemorate the event and the accomplishment. These maps also embody a period of time, either the length of the swim or sometimes the time surrounding the swim as well. Perhaps because of this time element, these works feel like they evolve on their own and have a natural progression - a flow to how they are built and layered with patterns and colors that emerge in an organic way, sometimes even to my surprise, but always culminating in a “rightness” to they way they feel. I am currently exploring collaborating with other swimmers to translate their experiences and achievements into collages. I would also like to explore the idea of working with athletes in other disciplines to commemorate their memories as well. Memory maps are accompanied by a “key”, which is private to the owner of the memories.

Swimmer’s Eye View

My swimmer’s eye view collages play with the slice of the world at the water line that is a swimmer’s perspective. Here, a swimmer is part of the complex movement of the surface where it interacts with the air. There are also exquisite glimpses of both above and below. In my miniatures, the diminutive scale is in opposition with the comparative vastness of bodies of water. I also think of them as a moment in time, a snap shot, that I have recorded in my psyche and I am compelled to translate into paper.

Colors and Styles

Within the Swimmer’s Eye View series, I have been experimenting with colors and shapes that one may not consider typically “watery”. My series of works entitled, “Rose Colored Glasses” represent resilience and hope - choosing to live and persevere in the face of challenge. These worked are inspired by my sister. My “Graphic” works play with geometric shapes and voids (often combined with more typically organic shapes) as a way of representing the complexity of form and color within nature and water. I have enjoyed adapting this graphic style to digital works, which have given way to my interest in larger works with bold colors and shapes that I am having printed in limited editions.

Symbolism

If you look carefully across my body of work, you will begin to see repeated signs and symbols emerge. These are elements that I carry through my life that have meaning to me. They represent little fragments of memories that follow me on my path. I have found that these symbols tend to pop up in my life, sometimes in unexpected places. Or maybe I am trained to find them and focus on them. I am not sure. Each of these feels like a little piece of me that I place into the work.

Background

Work History

I work as a project manager devising and implementing art collection software solutions for museums, archives, and private art collectors for a global company. Previously, I worked for the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA. for over 20 years in the South Asian and Korean Curatorial department, and as collection manager and the registrar for the museum's permanent collection. In that time I worked on producing exhibitions, acquiring and caring for artwork, and overseeing loans of art to US and international institutions.

Swimming and Art

I swim and train in open water in New England, USA year round with the Seacoast OpenWater Swimmers and have completed several MSF ratified, solo marathon swims as well as many triathlon and swim races. Swimming is therapy, community, and grounding for me.

As an artist, I have worked at once creative thing or another for my entire life but my urge to adapt my experiences with water is a more recent development. During the pandemic I was enticed to share my work more widely. My work has been featured in Swimzine, published in the UK, at the Alchemy gallery in Amesbury, MA., at the Amesbury Cultural Council, Outrider Beer Co. in Amesbury, MA., the Merrimac Public Library, Merrimac, MA., and at the Newbury Town Library, Newbury, MA.