Feline figures alongside their human companions inhabit extraordinary worlds that explore concepts of hope, healing, and home, in my most recent body of work. These layered and intricate paintings each take months or years to cultivate. In each of these works, feline figures and faces appear with varying degrees of prominence. These cats reference their historical symbolism as the protectors of home, healers, and confidants; they are deeply powerful, wild, and ferocious, yet also delicate and gentle companions of humans. The paintings in this series are acrylic, featuring strong, synthetic colors combined with rich traditional pigments to create hypercolor images on smooth, wooden panels.
Many of my recent paintings are painted over older works of art which I revisit in order to bring them healing. My process for these involves painting over some of the moments of pain, sadness, and heartbreak with imagery expressing restoration and new growth. Quite literally, this process simulates the process of the healing, with new layers of paint placed like new skin grown over wounds.