workflow002, bloodflow, heartflow
2019 8 ½ x 11 inches
digital images, transparency
Turning Points
Royal University of Fine Arts
Phnom Penh, Cambodia Nov 1-7, 2019
Recently I was in a performance piece, "Workflow 002," orchestrated by Denver, Colorado-based artist Trey Duvall. There were 30 of us and we passed yellow balloons from one person to another for 70 minutes. During that 70 minutes, I kept thinking about all the people who work on assembly lines. And my mind went to the Cambodian people knowing that the manufacturing of clothes and shoes is one of the biggest industries in Cambodia. I had a turning point during the performance: I have extreme empathy for anyone who works on an assembly line. My heart goes out to the 500,000 Cambodians who work on assembly lines in the garment industry.
keep your heart in hands
2019 8 ½ x 11 inches
digital image by Toni Rosato, transparency
Invictus
Global Livingston Institute
Entusi, Uganda
During the Women's Leadership Conference and Retreat
June 7-August 31, 2019
keep your heart in your hands
These words flowed from Toni Rosato, artist, sculpture professor, mentor, and dear friend, many years ago and I have held them close in my art making and life. For me, this image of Toni's hands is about staying true and raw and close to your bones. By doing this, rhizomes emerge - having no beginning, middle, or end - generating an endless web of hope and strength, akin to the Artnauts' mission over the past 23 years.
more and more and more open and sparse
2018 8 ½ x 11 inches
digital images
Connections
Europe House Zagreb
Jurisiceva, Croatia
September 5-21, 2018
We start with the complex beautiful tangle of the earth.
We move through life with the complex beautiful tangle of making connections with others.
Then we find ourselves in the complex beautiful tangle of not knowing and letting go.
Life becomes more and more and
more open and sparse.
we need both sides
2018, 17 x 11 inches
digital images, transparencies
Liminal Space
DMZ Museum
South Korea
June 22-Dec 22, 2018
My work is about the imagined liminal space between the right and left hemispheres of the brain. Each hemisphere has an arena of functions: the left is the center for analytical capabilities; the right is home to intuitive and artistic meanderings.
More and more we need to engage both sides of the brain when we are faced with difficult challenges between countries, between people, in ourselves. Smart, creative, innovative, and empathetic solutions will come from the coalescing of this liminal space within us.
stirring it up: red tide
2016, 8 ½ x 11 inches
digital images, transparency
Zeitgeist
Greatmore Studios, Cape Town, South Africa
July 13 - 25, 2016
The current political climate in the United States is toxic. Politicians are stirring up many issues that are as poisonous as a red tide- a brownish-red soup produced by the presence of vast numbers of microscopic flagellates that generate potent neurotoxins that threaten marine and human life. My hope is that people go back to the basics of what it is to be human and squelch the insidiousness of the burgeoning red tides.
nothing disturbs the silence between us
2014, 8 ½ x 11 inches
mixed media
Mahmoud Darwish Museum
Ramallah, Palestine
August 7-21, 2014
In response to a poem by Mahmoud Darwish….
My work is response to the poignant poem by Mahmoud Darwish titled, It is night and she is lonely…
The poem makes palatable the distance that has come between two lovers. Darwish eloquently describes it as a space, a silence, a type of serenity. He says, Nothing disturbs our night. Although there is a deep physical schism, the two feel each other's presence with a sense of yearning and resignation.
The line, Nothing disturbs the silence between us, inspired me to think about the quietness and loneliness that comes from eating alone after sharing so many meals together. The work has a backdrop of wallpaper that denotes the domestic space of eating. I selected imagery of the table to suggest the act of eating and the place for dining. The other image is one of my sculptures that is about the space between people even though they might have a strong "gut to gut" connection but simply cannot make it work. The final layer of the piece is a gold and silver piece of prayer paper that has been split to further symbolize the parting.
I am very moved by Mahmoud Darwish's words. I feel fortunate to have been introduced to him through the gracious invitation from the Palestinian People and through the inspiration and guidance of George Rivera and the Artnauts' collective.
blood lines
2014, 8 ½ x 11 inches
wallpaper, photo transfers, cardboard
Identity
University of the Andes
Bogota, Colombia
March 8-21, 2014
The first layer of the collage is the human vein system mapped out by Denis Diderot, (1713-1784), who was a French philosopher, artist, art critic, and writer. The second layer is a collection of microscopic images of blood cells. The collage is framed by a part of a game that I played growing up called "Categories," in which cartoon characters of people from different countries were placed into groups and used as cards in a memory game. My intent is that the blue cardboard framework acts a magnifying agent to focus down on the underlying layers of the body and bring attention to the biological basis of one's identity.
same sky-many horizons
2014, 8 ½ x 11 inches
digital images printed on aluminum
Identity, Place, and Memory
Bogota Arte Contemporaneo Gallery
Bogota, Colombia
March 2015
The notion of the horizon and how it helps physically and psychologically defines one's sense of place is the basis for my work. I took many images and chose these two that most emphasize the clarity, vastness, and sheer beauty of the sky and horizon in Colorado, a western state in America. The top image is where sand dunes, rising 225 meters, butt up against the majesty of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range, 4200 meters, in southern Colorado. The bottom image was taken looking out of our kitchen window as the sun was rising in the plains below. In this composite image, I made the skies as big as possible to emphasize the idea that we all live under the same beautiful, vast sky with many different horizons.
pull
mixed media
9" x 12", 2010-11
2010 The Raven, La Goguette Bistro, Micoco City, D.F., Mexico
2011 The Raven, Edgar Allen Poe Museum, Richmond, Virginia
The Raven, Proyecto Tinoco Y Palacios Gallery, Oaxaca, Mexico
The Raven, Casa de la Cultura Oaxaqueña, Oaxaca, Mexico Academia de San Carlos
The Raven, Escuela Nacional de Artes Plasticas, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico