PORTFOLIO
POSTGRADUATE APPLICATION FOR ART PSYCHOTHERAPY
The artworks collected here represent my artistic practice over a period of several years, in a range of mediums.
Included are works made while undergoing my own art therapy treatment while living in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
My undergraduate work and art created prior to 2016 are not included but can be viewed elsewhere on this website.
Included are works made while undergoing my own art therapy treatment while living in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
My undergraduate work and art created prior to 2016 are not included but can be viewed elsewhere on this website.
To see sketches and process materials for selected works, click below.
To read more about the essential themes underlying my artistic practice and the psychological insights I have gained from it, click below.
ARTWORK
Quilts
Quilts are assembled from smaller pieces of fabric, stitched, layered, and bound. The process is one of putting pieces back together, a symbolic act of mending. I use the medium to express concepts related to comfort and stability.
"Revision" was made by cutting up and restructuring a quilt I wasn't satisfied with. It shows both my frustration and the resolution.
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After a day spent admiring the Stedelijk Museum's collection of constructivist paintings, this composition appeared in scattered scraps of fabric on my work table.
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During the COVID-19 pandemic, my sewn fabric compositions began to resemble fragments of cracked ice as the world felt uncertain and social norms appeared to break down. Lacking the warmth of quilts, the pieces in this series are stretched on wooden frames, not quilted.
Bojagi
The Korean art of hand-sewing patchwork bojagi (wrapping cloths) has become a staple of my creative practice.
I build my compositions improvisationally, enjoying the meditative stitching and accepting the inevitable imperfections that arise.
I build my compositions improvisationally, enjoying the meditative stitching and accepting the inevitable imperfections that arise.
Dolls
While processing my schema therapy work, I sewed cloth dolls representing some of my inner personae.
The idea was to supplant critical inner voices with supportive ones, and increase their influence by giving them names and visible forms.
The idea was to supplant critical inner voices with supportive ones, and increase their influence by giving them names and visible forms.
Ceramics
Returning to ceramics was a homecoming after many years away from clay. Evident here are my love of grids and fracture imagery.
This group of tiles represents an homage to artist James Melchert, who was an artistic influence and personal acquaintance when I lived in California. He recently passed away, prompting me to think about the parts of my past and people who've contributed to my growth.
Along with the implied fragmentation, there is a sense of reassembly and order.
This group of tiles represents an homage to artist James Melchert, who was an artistic influence and personal acquaintance when I lived in California. He recently passed away, prompting me to think about the parts of my past and people who've contributed to my growth.
Along with the implied fragmentation, there is a sense of reassembly and order.
Though Melchert's large-scale tile assemblages are actually broken and rejoined, these small tiles are merely incised to appear cracked. Selectively applied glaze accentuates the affect.
Collage
Collaging with found imagery requires little preparation and yields immediate results. I respond to whatever I find in a magazine, collecting a few images, then assembling them intuitively. I use this process as a playful relief from larger time-intensive projects such as quilting.
Collage Grids
This series began as a daily journaling practice of flipping through a magazine, and extracting images that fit an impromptu theme.
This process allows for intuitive exploration within a set framework, releasing the need to establish new terms each day.
This series now includes more than thirty pieces and continues to grow.
This process allows for intuitive exploration within a set framework, releasing the need to establish new terms each day.
This series now includes more than thirty pieces and continues to grow.
Art Therapy work
The following pieces were made during my Art Therapy treatment sessions.
This image of looking up toward the surface while sinking in deep water looks strikingly similar to a light at the end of a tunnel.
This unexpected realization shifted my mood and perspective. |
Ploppy wants to hide in the craters, but Clara lifts him up to see above the trees. Calling upon friends can show us a new perspective.
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"What would it be like to be with the fear?" Perhaps there is a way to befriend it.
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The original painting represented the heavy darkness weighing on my shoulders and heart. Then I imagined a new feeling of radiance and light, and painted over it.
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Several drawings were made with a different colored oil pastel in each hand, making big sweeping movements with both arms simultaneously, engaging both sides of the brain.