Home

Printmaking

The Venus Work

Drawings

The Osprey Work

Exhibitions

Artist Statement

Contact

News

All linocuts are hand-pulled in my studio

This body of work borrows the figure of Venus from Botticelli's Birth of Venus (ca. 1485) and reinvents it in a modern context. By placing the Venus figure in various exaggerated and humorous configurations, I seek to raise questions about the nature of womanhood and to critique and parody aspects of our society that are manipulative and exploitative.

Venus As Paper Doll

Venus As Paper Doll
linocut on Rives paper
21 7/8 x 17 1/4 inches

Venus as Cover Girl

In this linocut print the image of Venus parodies contemporary fashion magazines that tantalize us with expectations that few of us can ever hope to achieve. It is a response to American advertising, which regularly uses female figures to entice consumers in ways that often create feelings of inadequacy among members of the very populace being targeted by the advertising.  

Venus as Cover Girl
linocut on Rives paper
11 x 8 inches

Venus As Pop Icon

This collaged linocut series references Andy Warhol's series of Marilyn Monroe prints as well as Monroe's role as a Venus figure of our time, a role that proved demanding and difficult to bear.  Monroe was not alone.  There are multiple unrealistic social pressures that drive women to emulate a fabricated ideal of female perfection.  Reflecting the chameleon-like qualities we assume in our efforts to conform to such pressures, this series of prints exists in a multitude of color combinations as well as several different configurations.

Consumermania Series Paper Doll Set

Consumermania Series Paper Doll Set (leporello format)
Laser print, oil pencil, and Prismacolor on Rives Paper
8 ½ x 44 inches

Dream Girls Series

This series of mixed media collages combines elements from early Renaissance paintings of religious icons and depicts the figure of Venus in numerous iconic fictional and fairytale guises set within thematically related backgrounds.  The figures in this series address various aspects of modern culture upon which we are often driven to fixate for various reasons…who has the prettiest hair, the largest home, the happiest love life, the best figure, the most money, etc.

Wheel of Fashion

Wheel of Fashion is a game devised to parody a television game show of longstanding popularity.  However, this game asks participants to consider the numerous paths available for the attainment of various outcomes in either appearance and/or self contentment…some more “fashionable” than others.  Participants are challenged to consider the benefits vs. risks of their choices as well as whether artificial or natural means offer the best path to health and happiness.

Wheel of Fashion
Wood, spray paint, laser print on Rives paper and colored copier paper
22 ½ x 20 ¾ x 5 ¼ inches

Vitruvian Venus

This drawing is a parody of Leonardo’s drawing of the Vitruvian Man, which sets forth a canon of proportion for the human figure based upon the writings of the ancient Roman architect, Vitruvius.  This Venus drawing takes both Vitruvius and Leonardo to task and asks why such a canon cannot be based on the female figure.  Contained in the text of the drawing is a “Canon of Proportion for the 21st –Century Woman” that not only questions this longstanding prejudice, but also reflects upon the role of women in modern society.

Vitruvian Venus
Graphite
26 x 19 inches (sheet)

Venus as Super Hero

In Venus as Super Hero (2018), the figure of Venus confronts the viewer in an aggressive stance with a broom raised overhead as if to engage someone in battle.  In this linocut print, she is dressed in the clothes of a career woman with a briefcase hanging from her right shoulder.  She holds a screaming baby in her left arm, while a dog howls at her from below.  This action-filled scene takes place in a kitchen setting.  Venus has assumed a herculean persona, a woman who can handle anything while remaining cool under pressure.  Like so many women in modern society, she does it all: wife, mother, career woman, cook, maid, pet caretaker.  She is fierce and protective of her domain and will take on all challengers, all the while an unsung hero whose daily struggles to juggle all her responsibilities often go unrecognized.

Venus as Super Hero
Linocut
16 x 8-7/8 inches (image)

Like the graphite drawing above, this linocut print is based on Leonardo’s drawing and related notations of the Vitruvian Man that are contained in one of his notebooks and which set forth a canon of proportion for the human figure based upon the male form and the writings of the ancient Roman architect, Vitruvius. This print is intended to take both Vitruvius and Leonardo to task by demonstrating that such a canon can be based on the female figure. Contained in the accompanying text is a “Canon of Proportion for the 21st –Century Woman” that not only questions this longstanding prejudice, but also reflects upon the very essence of womanhood, seasoned with a dash of humor. As in Leonardo's notebook, the text is written backwards. The extra line in the upper text is intentional to mimic an unbalanced feature of Leonardo’s text. I originally rendered this subject in a series of three individual drawings in graphite, ink, and Prismacolor & oil pencils, and have long wished to render it in linocut form.