Adoration

Oil on canvas

40" x 30"

2006

$120

This is an older piece, but I continue to find it funny.  It was the result of matching random objects and emotions: toilet brush / love.  Though the combination occurred at random, when I look at it I feel a certain sense of irony in the way it speaks to women's roles.  In a time when many of our mothers have broken out of the domestic, private sphere, for some daughters (like myself) there is a romanticized notion of the 60's stay at home mom.  We forget about the drudgery and think of the potlucks, salons, and cocktails.  I wonder if the pendulum will swing back, and when it does, will high level female executives find a renewed love for their toilet brushes?

27 is Not a Prime Number

Oil and conte crayon on masonite

36" x 42"

2008

$500

This piece includes the ordered numbers 1 through 90 with the prime numbers highlighted in white.  There is an abstracted rock wall superimposed over the number line.  The piece speaks to the unpredictable nature of the occurrence of primes and relates it to the unpredictability of natural forces. 

Beta Birds

Oil, acrylic, charcoal, and conte on canvas

24" x 30"

2008

Sold

This piece substitutes birds on a wire for gammas and betas in an equation.

Mathematics of Aesthetics

Oil, acrylic, charcoal, conte, and ink on canvas

32" x 45"

2007

$200

There is an essay called "The Mathematics of Aesthetics" by George David Birkhoff.  The essay asserts that aesthetic mass is order over complexity, and that the  more aesthetic mass something has, the more beautiful it is.  This piece is a reaction to that formula, and actually to all formulas for what is beautiful and what isn't.  

When I first discovered the essay, I was determined to make a painting which maximized aesthetic mass according to the equation.  But when I thought about how to maximize order and minimize complexity visually, I ended up with an image that I found incredibly boring.  This piece shows the space that I was working in while studying the essay.  The blank book and the clean equations contrast with the disorder of the studio, but I think both look beautiful in their opposition.