Artist Statement

      I am a painter, working in both oil and acrylic, and sometimes mixed media.
There is much that informs my work in terms of intention, process and subject matter. My paintings are story tellers; they are a conscious and subconscious narrative of perception, of how I relate to the inner and outer worlds. I explore through colour, form and abstract form, representations of the dream, the vision, the thought, the sacred, and the physicalness of being human.
The inspiration found in living rurally and close to the land, and forging bridges with indigenous people and ways, is juxtaposed (within me and my work) with my perception of myself as a "scatterling". The identity I formed growing up as a white girl in the city in a segregated and revolutionary society weaves with my identity as a South African artist and mother living in an alternative rural Western arts community.

      The work is a deep exploration of my experiences, perceptions, visions and teachings received while participating in traditional medicine ceremonies of certain indigenous people of the Americas and of South Africa. Despite the racial separations of apartheid while growing up in South Africa, I found my way to experiencing certain traditional sacred ceremonies. My perception of ancestry and caretaking ancestral spirits has been shaped by these experiences and my 6 generations of South African blood. This is overlayed with my discovery of North and South American medicine ways. The ceremonies in which I have participated on North American soil involve similar aspects as those witnessed in Sangoma (traditional South African healer)ceremonies; such as devotional song, prayer, instruments and music making, endurance, sacrament,surrender,intent,struggle,sacrifice,moments of bliss and gleaning, visionary states and transformation. As would be expected ,each ceremony has its own protocol its own intention and its own cultural history. I am particularly aware of questions of appropriation, and as such seek not to illustrate traditional ways. The paintings are a response to these experiences, to the places of mystery I have traveled; an attempt to depict multidimensional realities, an attempt to get out of my own way enough to allow information received to find form through the medium of paint. They are a tracing of blood lines and a personal unraveling of ancestry and "raison d'etre'.

      The layering of perception is evoked by the multiple layering of paint used in resolving each piece. The paintings are characterized by a vibrant and instinctive employment of colour, and a very personal language of symbols. The symbols are hooks on which meaning is hung. I continue to explore light and shadow, how the subject is illuminated, be it figurative, abstract, land or dreamscape. The portrayal of light through colour, while allowing the paint to hold its integrity and maintain an element of self-consciousness of itself as paint, is an aspect of my art. As is the metaphorical representation of light and dark.

      I am excited by language(s),and occasionally will include text in a piece. Words that do not explain the layering of meaning but, potentially allow the viewer another doorway of perception.

      A thread running through the work is an awareness of the superimpositions of the dream, the visionary and the waking consciousnesses on each other.

       My research takes me around the globe, and sometimes beyond the borders of my own body. I find pertinent information in my childhood memories, dreams, the landscape, and in my relationships with humans, plants, animals and birds. I am influenced by folk art, so-called "primitive" art and so-called "shamanic" art.

      It is my intention as an artist to maintain an authenticity in my work. The most successful paintings are created when my faith in my process of art, and my role of artist, is most clear. I am intrigued by the unseen and seek to render that which is invisible through paint and brushwork.

Biography

      I was born in Kenya during a political uprising. We moved to South Africa when I was a young girl. My nanny, Nomobongo, of the Xhosa tribe, was in the line of sangoma (traditional medicine healer). My grandmother was a Christian Science practioner (prayer and faith healer), she was exiled from nazi Germany because of her Jewish blood.

      I have been captivated by mark-making for as long as I can remember. As a child I attended the Frank Joubert Art School where I took classes in painting, clay, drawing and weaving. I grew up drawing under my mother's weaving loom.

      I attended the Michaelis School of Art at the University of Cape Town, where I received an honours degree in fine art, majoring in painting. I lived and worked with Brett Bailey (one of South Africa's most notable playwrights). In one production, the "dreadcatcosmikaleidoshow", my role was to sit in the audience and paint my response to the actors, audience and subject matter of the play. I began a new canvas for each performance, after which I displayed the paintings on the street at the Grahamstown Art Festival. After traveling southern Africa, I worked my way over to Europe on a Polish cargo ship. One of my jobs was to paint a mural on the bottom of the drained swimming pool. While living in Europe, I sold my jewellery and mixed media collages on the markets and in cafes. I displayed and sold drawings, paintings and 3-D sculpted paintings (compiled from found objects), on the streets, in parks and in random spaces (eg. a site where the Berlin Wall once stood). In the United Kingdom, I was employed by Lord and Lady Pembroke of Salisbury to teach art to their children.

      My political activist ideals led me north to join a group of wild beings who existed on the edges of society. It was while defending an old growth forest that I met my husband, Chado. We are growning with our two children, Jaliya and Okoyo. In Canada Chado and I started a business called "Holy Cow ". We made and sold clay art and musical instruments, clothing designed and made by myself, and jewellery we co-created. This business was operative in Canada and South Africa.

      Since 2001, I have focused entirely on my painting. I work primarily in BC, but also have a studio in Cape Town. We live on a farm on a river in the mountains, where we grow our own food. I canoe or bike to my studio. This reality is quite different from our part time life in Cape Town, a city of such excitement and cultural diversity, of such horror and beauty.

      In 2005 I was invited by Mark Ackbar, a renowned Canadian film director and activist, to display my work at the function celebrating the success of his fim, "The Corporation."

      I am an active member in my local art world, where I have taught art at schools and have facilitated life drawing classes in the community. I sell my paintings locally, through galleries, as well as privately from my studio or by commission; on the coast of BC and in South Africa. My work has been shown in numerous public and private exhibitions.