Paint Chip Project, c. 2004

In the late fall of 2003 I was overwhelmed and experiencing a huge creative block. I was suffering with the duality that I was nearly abandoning all hope to ever make a complete living off of my art, yet I was on the road to self sufficiency outside of the corporate world.

I was spending alot of my time doodling, goofing off, figuring out ways to tidy up my studio and to keep busy without making any finished workes of art. I collected paint samples from stores and messed around with color combinations and collages. My mind was completely bereft of anything substantial, and I had recently been rejected from the Mills College MFA program, so I was feeling defeated and dejected too.

Then it became an official undertaking when I started to weave strips of paint chips and fashion them into wallets:



In 2004 Readymade Magazine featured the wallets, and I began a paint-chip-wallet enterprise that continued until about the summer of 2006, when I decided to put it to rest completely. What was so stimulating about making these objects were the countless opportunities for sampling different color palettes and combinations.

Alongside the wallets I was drawing anatomical diagrams:


During this period I got so carried away that I envisioned paint chips that had anatomical references as the color names, like Gall Bladder, Renal Cortex and Bone Marrow.




I embroidered anatomical diagrams. I wanted badly to capture the eloquence of the old anatomical artworks within an elegant medium like crewel embroidery.





Those two series along with my scissors still lifes were the work for a solo show a Mama Buzz, October 2004:


So there's the story behind a phase of artwork that does indeed have personal meaning, as well as congruence from one medium to the next. It's nice to look back and remember what it was that drove me to a subject, and perhaps how it's led me to where I am today: a colorist, a figurative painter, a craftswoman.

There's no use in trying to fit a life's work into one category. To pigeonhole oneself is to accept your own self-imposed limitations and suffer the consequences.