I find myself reusing old things to make new things. I find what was cast off and forgotten and give it another chance at life. I suppose I grew up feeling forgotten as the baby of a family that was really starting to unravel just as I was born. This personal experience has given me an emediate empathy with people or things set to the side and forgotten.
I have been having fun with old books, taking them apart and printing on the pages. Some times I apply some paint to an area to give the print a nuetral space to exist. I love the randomness of the way images combine when I work like this. These random combinations suggest new meanings of there own that are far beyond anything I may have origianlly intended when I set out to carve a new wood block. Many of these prints havemade thier way into the new style of paintings I have been making. Infact Brenda and I have been making these paintings together. When we are combining these images and adding paint we work on a very intuitive level. They come together almost like a crazy quilt and this approach makes collaberation easy. Brenda works for awhile and then I work and then it is back to Brenda until we feel like it is finnished. You can see examples of these paintings in the gallery at Grand Rapids Christian High School, in their beautiful performing arts space.
