This series of works I have dedicated to my two autistic children who brought chaos to my order. I work with many different media, painting, drawing, and a variety of printing. I enjoy photo intaglio and mono-printing the most. While studying at the Pennsylvania College of Art and Design, I did several series using both mono prints and photo intaglio. Working with these two there are long and meticulous processes that must be followed. If attention is not paid to the order of these steps, mistakes happen. These mistakes were also important as it taught me what I needed to correct and also what does not work. I am proud of these mistakes and have kept them. Following these steps and careful processes helped me learn to be patient with my work and slow down. They also helped me to understand the mechanics that order the steps and why. Using my mistakes I have pieced together a series that allows me to express the beauty of what I have learned.
The same order of learning by one’s mistakes has also helped me to understand my children. My children have a different way of seeing the world and processing its various stimulations. Their experience is different from how I myself process my own surroundings. What was once ordered and meticulous has been sundered into a lackadaisical chaos. This abrupt change has helped me to fuel my art by observing the changes in my life and reinterpreting the processes that I used to use. It has been a journey of expressive adaptation and one that I have learned much from and enjoyed.
The foundation of each piece is either mono print, etching, or photo intaglio image. The second part of the collage I developed a figurative drawing over a mono print and fit it into the bottom part of the collage. The third part is a geometric design that fits into the layout of the design images. When the first part of the collage process is complete I use thread to attach the images together onto canvas or paper.