was educated at Mills College in the San Francisco Bay
Area: I grew up in Sausalito and The City. My family
life provided extreme exposure to the arts; San Francisco
International Film Festival, The Art Institute shows,
The Museum of Modern Art, European travel, art collector
parents. However, it was really my adventures as a military
wife that inspired me to paint. While living in Montgomery,
Alabama, I discovered Mose T. who painted using reckless
mediums unconcerned with public opinion.
It was on the eve of my fortieth birthday that I was
sitting in a dental chair in Montgomery. I hated what
they were doing to me. I told the dentist, “I
am not digging this! I am leaving!” I got up and
went home and started painting. It just seemed to me
that I couldn’t go forward into this next phase
of life feeling oppressed. I had to leave and I had
to paint.
My art comes from a joke. I like to say “I only
paint when I am P----- off and I am usually p----- Off.”
What I really mean is that I paint to channel my energy.
I am a very intense person. I had this thought: I wondered
for the longest time what it meant to be created in
God’s image; then I realized that it meant that
we are all creators. Everything that we do is a creation.
So, to me it seems that life is really just a matter
of what we choose to create. I chose art. That is a
constructive place for me to direct my intensity into
beauty. Most people see my work as an expression of
happiness and joy; and that truly is the nature of my
spirit. A collector told me, “Of all my collection,
no one ever just walks by your paintings, they always
comment on them.” A friend’s observation
was, “I don’t know what your work is Sissy,
but I know that it is something.” I consider my
work to be contemporary folk art.
The one thing that I really want the viewer to know
is that my work is not academic. I do not want to be
another Van Gough, but I do think I understand why he
cut off his ear. I can see the influences of many artists
in my work. I like how Warhol used packaging icons;
I like how Matisse varied patterns; I love how Degas
chopped things in half; I love how Varda mixed mediums.
Yet, through all these influences I am adding my own.
When I see a discarded or injured object, I see opportunity
in its present state and through its salvage I produce
beauty. To me this is the lesson of life.
I have been selected for three awards; one was the prestigious
Marker Award which was from the associate curator of
the Phillips Collection. He felt that my piece was the
“edgier” piece in the show. I also have
had the great privilege to do a painting of a birthday
cake for The First Lady, Laura Bush, on the occasion
of her most recent birthday. All these successes are
very encouraging to me. My work comes from the most
natural part of myself. It is an expression that is
really me; and now I find that I have the courage to
share it.
It is my great hope and ambition that if you take nothing
else away from my show, it will be a sense of freedom
of expression and a new view of your own creativity.
It is my belief that with this awareness one can do
much good in the world. Oh, and one more thing: I have
been back to the dentist.
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