Drawing from the history of pattern, the contemporary field of interior design, the garden space, and cultural associations of nature, my work attempts to question how pattern can function as a visual language. I am drawn to floral patterns mostly because they are found universally throughout all cultures and communicates on an ideal. Throughout the centuries, we repeatedly look to reference these natural and organic forms, either through direct representation, stylization or abstraction. Perhaps it is why today, while we generally feel a separation from nature in our contemporary lifestyles, our response is to bring these natural forms into our interior environments through decoration. In doing so we attempt to domesticate nature in an ideal form.
In my recent series I paint directly on tablecloths, the patterns are a predetermined commercialized image that I personally respond to, which is both challenging and liberating. My paints are mostly premade colors from swatch brochures bought at a local hardware store. In order to extract meaning from this process, my impulse is to paint, imitate, appropriate and reference through the hand. The hand is the only individual gesture that identifies oneself as unique. I am a painter and think through the act of painting. I also contemplate how it is natural for me to turn to paint to express myself. However, even through the process of making marks on my canvas, I am constantly repeating, imitating and copying from visual sources around me.
