As a result, the Borderland series was born. I always liked the contradiction of the word “borderland”. In my mind, the word border is the edge and land is actual real estate. The word suggests that this land is located in relationship to another piece of land. In terms of the above premise, I like the idea of work that is in relationship with a kind of conceptual real estate or property or literally an “off the wall location”.

In works such as, The Black Earth, which was made in homage to the people affected by Hurricane Katrina, literally contains a relic of black earth from New Orleans. There is an oil painting of a close-up face, almost in the tradition of The Passion of St. Teresa and yet also may be of fear. The sculptural object that is the “support” to the painting is animalistic and abstracted. In terms of my work it is a mutated inner ear. However, there is the votive candle that does not illuminate the face, it actually illuminates the object. There is also the dangling receptacle of black earth that is suspended in such a way that the image seems aware of it in her line of sight.

The expected question, “what is the front and what is the back?” This question creates the reasons for making a painting with the awareness of a physical object in front of her painted face, then balancing it out with a lit candle that illuminates the sculptural form. By doing this I wish to achieve a layered read that performs a visual back and forth where the painting and object are in a symbolic balance. Another example of front and back is the piece called, Eavesdropping Girl, where the image on one side, is of a girl who is listening through the wall by using a glass to her ear. She is an under glazed painting. The silhouette of the object shows a large ear and the back of the piece is literally “a person’s back”. This is a tongue- in-cheek way of saying that even the back can be a front or a dominant side.