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The theme of my current work is to take a contemporary view at classical myth and Neoclassical work, particularly the way that women are portrayed in these stories and works. Unfortunately, almost all of these women are nothing but objects of lust and rape. They are usually masked under the terms of being seduced or ravished. Ever since childhood I have been interested in Greek mythology. However, because of getting older and more educated, I have started to see the myths in a new light. In general, the ancient Greek culture is the backbone of our modern Western society, and the general public has an unrealistic view of ancient Greek culture. They had very strange customs, such as pedophilia, that we today consider wrong; their myths carry the same morals that for some reason, many people overlook. In my work I try to show my view of theses myths and neoclassical works pertaining to these myths. As a young woman growing up and reading these myths I have always wanted to identify myself with one of the female characters. This was always difficult because the women were always being raped, were Aphrodite, or were extreme virgins.

I work with oils for the most part for the richness in color. I also work with watercolor some and I tend to use it rather thickly. I try to get my watercolors to look like my oils. Oils give me more freedom of texture whether it is from mixing sand into my paint, scraping or carving away paint, or just the texture from a palette knife. I like to mix coarse sand into my oil paint in response to older Neoclassical paintings where the female is always painted very soft. I do not consider myself a figural painter even though figures do appear in my paintings. I do not tend to use a realistic setting for my paintings but try to create space without using traditional atmospheric perspective.

In my work I try to correct some of the Neoclassical paintings and sculptures. The women in these works always appear very soft and wanting to be touched so I have created their skin to be rough and possibly wanting to be touched but not at all for the same reason. Neoclassical works almost always show the woman as enjoying herself and usually weak. I try to show a stronger type of woman who is actually showing signs of struggle and pain that corresponds correctly to her fate. I want to go beyond just showing illustrations of the Greek myths. I also want to avoid just reproducing more of these women who are being shown as victims.

The bulk of my work deals with the women of myth and the roles they play. The more and more that I do research I am finding that it was not the Greeks who did the images that I am finding fault with, but the later generations of western culture trying to revive classical Greece. I have spent some time trying to figure out if no one has had any objection to these myths and works because of their violent content. Unfortunately, today people still tend to look the other way and not want to get involved with stopping or confessing to seeing a rape. My generation has been taught to yell out “Fire!” instead of “Help!” because people are more interested in witnessing a fire than helping someone escape such an awful situation. I wonder if all the viewers in the past looking at a work that portrays a rape have just avoided getting involved with the piece because of the violent content.