Artist Statement:
Even before learning to read, I’d spent hours poring over books of Durer’s etchings and books about other artists who worked in black and white. I first used charcoal in a high school art class and was amazed even frightened, by the ease with which I portrayed a classmate.
I like to call my charcoals “paintings”, though a reverse process accomplishes the work. A calculated removal of initial and further applications of charcoal unveils and defines the intention hidden in shadow. Light is exposed, boundaries established. I love the tension between what is revealed and what is not revealed, the brink of change. I love the simplicity of tools – charcoal, kneaded erasers, Q-tips and fingertips.