I really dig art supplies. And I mess around with them quite a bit (though not as often as I would like). The more I experiment with a given media, the more it's possibilities and limitations become evident; as those get identified I can apply them with greater accuracy. So as an artist, I'm in the midst of a lovely, exciting cycle of exploration and mastery - the more I explore, the more masterful my explorations, the more interesting the artwork.

There's a frugality about my process; I tend to try to get the most use out of something or use it sparingly. Whether this is using wood scraps from the bookshelves we built to paint on, original paintings digitally cropped and multiplied, fabric overages from the upholsterer down the block for bean bag furniture or the muslins used by my Western-clinical-herbalist partner to strain finished tincture out of infused medicinal plants for quilt tops (200 different plants in the pharmacy = 200 different natural plant dyes), I like to use what is at hand. Of course, Flax & Pearl & Blick are at also hand and there is an unrivaled deliciousness to a factory-direct gessoed canvas or bottle of metallic fluid acrylic. There's a beauty in the media in & of themselves - just look at india ink straight from the bottle! - and I like to give them space to retain some of that virgin grace. Breathwork is one very good way to achieve this; I can manipulate the media, but it's core aqueousness (and the grace that is inherent in it) is at once preserved and accentuated. Negative space is also key. My paintings have a good amount of breathing space with the effect of the elements in them having an actual, or at least possible, gross vitality. The subjects, whether representational of things we know exist or fantastical, are given plausibility by the space that is given them, as well as the definitive boundaries created and maintained by their unencumbered gestures.

My current work explores the various entry points in the media-subject matter circuit. Sometimes the character of a subject arises from the media on the surface to be drawn out; other times the media is manipulated to render specific subjects. I gravitate toward aspects of the natural world on this plane of existence that either exist without (or despite) the intervention of humankind, and the possibilities that other planes of existence may hold: stills of alien landscapes (Cosmic Idyll), hybrid creatures flickering between worlds (Cheshire Swarrot), portals (Thicket), the movement and manifestation of archetypes (Stella Blue, Portrait of Colonel Lumpnut), etc.

Hope you enjoy the work.

-Adriane

two group shows - City Art Gallery, San Francisco