My work references the past using vintage ephemera in creating my images. I collage this old paper on sheets of drawing paper, and it is these collaged sheets that create the background for my drawings with their words the underpinning of the images I choose to lay on top. These can be pages from one book, a group of related letters, or a jumble of different, unrelated pieces of paper. Using vintage paper in my drawing addresses continuity in life. The text and images on the paper form the background and surface on which I place selected motifs, each relating in its own way to the writing, or lack of writing on the pages. The viewer can see the text as simply patterned background or read the pages to understand how they relate to the motifs I have chosen. That relationship can be ironic, humorous, sad or thoughtful. To make each motif at active as the underlying paper, the chalk is rubbed heavily into the sheet to get a rich deep tone with curving lines bursting from each image provides movement. Equally central to my work are the formal aspects of the image making - balance and pattern. I often use several sheets of collaged paper butted together to create a larger surface on which to draw. These multi-sheet works are reflective the pieced together nature of our memories of the past, often with several sheets of collaged paper butted together to create a larger drawing. These multi-sheet works are reflective the pieced together nature of our memories of the past. There is great beauty in the old, yellowed and foxed paper, and in its stains and scribbles, along with the birds, animals, hats or other elements I arrange the sheets I create from that paper which work with and emphasize this beauty.
