[See Artist Statement Below:]
While the World Burns
65″ x 35″ [165cm x 89cm]
Oil on canvas
[Sold]
Bedoba, the Do-Over
31″x47″ [79cm x 119cm]
Oil, applique, and embroidery floss on canvas
[Sold]
The Sleeping Storyweavers Dream of a Falling Sky
37.5″ x 16.5″ [95cm x 41cm]
Oil and embroidery floss on canvas
[Sold]
The Time of the Ghost Towers
25″ x 65″ [64cm x 165cm]
Oil on canvas
[Sold]
The Muse Machine
48″ x 24″ [122cm x 61cm]
Oil and embroidery floss on canvas
The Ups and Downs of Tbilisi
45″ x 65″ [114cm x 165cm]
Oil on canvas
The Language Keeper [For Sergei]
48″ x 28″ [122cm x 71cm]
Oil and embroidery floss on canvas
Towering
36″ x 106″ [91cm x 269cm]
Oil on canvas
Tangle
24″x 18″ [61cm x 46cm]
Oil and embroidery floss on canvas
[sold]
Dream of the Stickhouse
24″x 40″ [61cm x 101cm]
Oil, silver leaf, applique, polyfill, and embroidery floss on canvas
[Sold]
This Is Not a Phone
64″ x 31.5″ [162cm x 80cm]
Oil and silver leaf on canvas
The Deflated Balloon Lady of Marjanishvilli
24″ x 30″ [61cm x 76cm]
Oil, applique, polyfill, and embroidery thread on canvas
You’re Not Doing It Wrong If No One’s Watching
20″ x 16″ [51cm x 41cm]
Oil, fabric, applique, and embroidery floss on canvas
Dream of Falling With Golden Wings
36″ x 36″
Oil, acrylic, polyfill, and embroidery floss on canvas
Artist Statement
I chose the title ‘Full Circle’ for this body of work as it best illustrates my recent five year journey through fifteen countries. I left my home, found new homes, was inspired and transformed, and then returned to where I started to share what I experienced through paint.
The series began during Covid while I isolated alone in the Republic of Georgia, with all borders closed and a strict curfew.
The towering structures were the first paintings in the series, and looking back they were likely conceived because I felt the precarious balance of society during that time. I usually don’t know what my paintings are about until after they’re completed, so they’re a powerful source of therapy and self-discovery.
My daily escape during lockdown was gazing out the studio windows at the Black Sea and wandering its long shores. I had the time to think about my journeys and particular images began to urge me to bring them to life. Images of the people who once stood in busy squares, sat in parks, and wandered crowded beaches seemed to beg me to bring them back from the void, onto my canvases, and into the world once again.
Without the defining tether of a permanent home, I get to easily evolve and meet myself as a person and an artist again and again, like it’s the very first time. Setting up studios regularly in new countries influences my paintings based not only on the size and materials, but the culture and atmosphere that welcome me.
My work isn’t necessarily about the specific places I’ve been, but is born of and infused with the rich landscape of sights, sounds, tastes, smells, people, and thoughts I experienced in each new country.
I’ve always painted on wood panels, but I quickly learned the cost of shipping heavy paintings across borders. I reluctantly began to work on loose canvas, as it could be rolled and travel more easily in tubes; whether by shipping or in my suitcases.
Soon the very nature of canvas inspired me, and I began to see it as cloth to be cut, stuffed, appliquéd, and embroidered. What I thought was a constraint evolved into new ways of working. This serendipitous discovery will grow and develop in my future work.
Many of the paintings are meant to be displayed frameless to enhance their textile and malleable qualities; a mirror to the movement that went into their creation.