About me
I’m a San Francisco artist with New England roots. “Wicked” is a slang word used by many New Englanders to replace words such as “very.” I wanted to bring a piece of my wicked native culture into my site, hence, “Wicked Painty.” San Francisco is my favorite place on the planet and New England has a special spot in my heart. Both have had an impact on me as a human being and as an artist.
Artist Statement
I create vibrant paintings and mixed media works. My interest lies in the way in which color, texture, and subject matter contribute to the perception of the viewer. I seek to examine how elements of a work can come together to express emotion—joy, excitement, calm, gloom, sadness, for example—and how these expressions can allow for personal growth. The freedom to mold, manipulate, splash, glob, and spread materials to fabricate a work that people will experience allows for pure expression. This power to convey is liberating. In addition to painting, I have recently begun to explore sound arts, interdisciplinary arts, installation art, and expressive arts for healing.
The “City Perspective Project” is one of my most recent projects. I had moved from New England to San Francisco and was in awe of the city’s diverse, eclectic, and distinctive culture—a population consisting of an abundance of perspectives. I wanted to create a project that mirrored the city’s cosmopolitan character. It portrayed my perceptions of the neighborhoods of San Francisco, the emotions I felt when experiencing them, and the diversity I observed. This work consisted of several abstract cityscapes in which I attempted to exemplify the notion that people see things differently and that each individual has a particular experience unlike that of any other. Some exude a certain gloom and others express a powerfully bright feeling. I varied the styles in order to examine the range of emotions the neighborhoods brought out in me. While working on this project, I lived in the Tenderloin—a debilitated area known for its substance abuse, crime, and homelessness. For one of my pieces, I purchased a street sheet newspaper and used it to create a collage of various sized buildings within the work—mostly in gray. My intention in this was to echo the heartrending sense I felt when walking through the area—to and from my apartment. My work mirrors my interest in emotion, perception, perspective, and the way in which art can bring these aspects out of humans. My aspiration is to use these concepts in my work in order to encourage learning about others as well as ourselves.
I am also driven to help other artists and to promote learning and personal growth. Currently, I am a studio volunteer at Creativity Explored—an organization whose mission is to provide the means and resources to adult artists with developmental disabilities to create and sell their work. I am learning a great deal from these artists and their perspectives on the world. I am discovering their stories and am catching glimpses of their experiences through their work. We each have a unique experience—an inimitable perspective that when shared, can expose others to a new way of thinking or can allow for new insight into our lives and our story. Art gives us an outlet to express—the power to convey, which leads to knowledge and personal development for both those receiving information and those expressing information. These truths fuel my inspiration as an artist and as a human.
Selected Exhibitions
2012
Telling Stories Through Art, Diablo Valley College Gallery, Pleasant Hill, CA
2011
Uniquely Human Exhibition, CIIS, San Francisco, CA
2010
Spring Open Studios, The Art Explosion, San Francisco, CA
New Growth, The Art Explosion, San Francisco, CA
2009
Open Studios, The Art Explosion, San Francisco, CA
Holiday Show, The Art Explosion, San Francisco, CA
Centro Café, San Francisco, CA (Solo)
2007
River Tree Arts Gallery, Kennebunkport, ME