I explore concepts of beauty and graphic expression in lipstick and makeup as well as a variety of other mediums.
I started my growing series, "Can't You Put on a Little Lipstick?" from an enormous collection of giveaway lipsticks I amassed over a number of years. But that's not the whole story... since I was of dating age, my grandmother always gently urged, "Can't you put on a little lipstick?" This repeated suggestion, combined with my lipstick collection, started me thinking about how wearing lipstick contributes to our concepts of beauty. That's what led me to put on a little lipstick, on paper, to see how it might be perceived.
Working in makeup automatically ties my art to concepts related to how we define beauty, roles we play, the masks we wear, what we choose to reveal and hide about ourselves, and gender and identity. I paint subject matter that further directs the viewer to see beauty in the details and find beauty in something we might not consider to be beautiful.
Inspired by Georgia O'Keefe, my art can at times be suggestive. I tend to crop subject matter tightly to draw particular attention to one specific aspect or feature and to encourage the viewer to more closely observe and think about parts of subjects that we see regularly but do not often consciously examine.
I also enjoy the exploration of the meaning and value of original artwork by incorporating appropriations of iconic images. Working with a bright palette, I explore how my use of recycled or repurposed material might add to the content of my work.
I have taught numerous workshops on painting with lipstick and my work has been on exhibit locally, nationally, and internationally. My piece, La Tour Eiffel à la Rouge à Lèvres, commissioned by L'Oréal, was on display in Paris during Fashion Week 2016. More recently, I had a piece on exhibit at the Cape Cod Museum of Art in Dennis, MA, and have also shown in San Francisco, CA, Cambridge, MA.; and in, Chelsea and Brooklyn, NY, in shows that featured art from detritus. My work has taken me to Athens, Greece, where I was invited to give a talk about my process that was then published as a paper, "The Impermanence of Art and Beauty" in the Athens Journal of Humanities and Arts 3.1 (January 2016): 27-40. Web. Read here.
As a professional visual designer and artist, I work to create and communicate intriguing visual messages. In my role as a design professor in the Art & Music Department at Framingham State University, I develop customized curriculum for courses in design and art and I investigate methods to motivate and inspire students to learn. I hold B.A. degrees in English and Journalism from the University of Connecticut, Storrs, and an M.F.A. degree in Visual Design from the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. In addition to the mediums of lipstick and makeup, I have experience with oil sticks, acrylics, pastels, watercolors, mixed media, digital art, animation, video and photography.