My work reflects life experiences and personal feelings that have been mediated through a working process based on concepts of automatism and the subconscious. In many ways, the pieces function autobiographically; the process of making art is akin to the process of making sense. I create with an innate ability to discover truth and clarity that is achieved through visual representation. Through mark making, selected elements of the world made tangible, personal experience is made susceptible to order and rearrangement: allowing me to more completely grasp, order and illuminate the intricacies of personal experiences.
The most prominent themes in my work stem from an interest in the geometric and nonfigurative qualities in Islamic textiles and calligraphy, scientific fascinations and urban landscape. Much of the work invokes the cultural power of the palimpsest by tracing and redefining the visual legacies of abstraction through form and script. The work incorporates abstracted text, which visually plays with what is seen as well as what has been erased. Working in this way allows me to break the confines and limitations I face with spoken language, allowing me to add to the dialog and rich personal history of writers and poets through visual representation. The incorporation of these elements attempts to find harmony with things that are opposite, including disparate cultural and political ideologies.
Working simultaneously on the pieces, the work is constantly in conversation with one another, learning, listening and influencing, it is the painting that tells the artist when it is “done”. When I am in the studio I am “thinking about Thinking”. My role is to facilitate this dialog, navigating ever so slightly through collections of visual memory in order to explore what lies beneath the surface of the human experience. I am enthralled by the spontaneity and watching the pieces unfold. This intuitive approach feels empowering and honest. The surface becomes the mind through which I negotiate.