I began the Hug Series – Hug Horse, Hug Dog, Buffalo Hug, Bear Hug, etc. – during a heartbreak. The emotional upheaval unleashed powerful energy. Animal spirits and angels flew into the wound in the center of my world. The paintings were a kind of sanctuary where my psyche was restructured by its own creations. Darkness in my heart like crushed birds became incandescent light.
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As paint flowed off my brushes I remembered the magical transformations I collected in my research of trauma survivors. As orange swirled into fur, a dog with a soft muzzle appeared on my canvas to comfort all the hurt. I imagined his keen nose sniffing the roots of trees and listening for prayers. In this dreamscape, the animal helpers and winged messengers embraced anyone sad and alone. A lion lent them agility. A bear tenderly entwined around a woman gave her strength.

Sunrises appeared in most of the paintings but the sun was more than a sun because I imagined holding a yellow torch just off the horizon, lighting the way of anyone lost, turning what was broken into light. My paintings will outlive me, so when I paint lions, cows and dogs I get my spirit into the socket of their eyes, my memories into their pelt to provide a flame bright enough for me to continue in darkness.
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In Africa I visited game parks where zebras, wildebeests, gazelles, lions migrate with the seasons. Animals are alive in all their senses – noses sniff, ears rotate, eyes search – because is one messy moment they become part of each other. The grandeur of nature is backed by this dark side. It’s a rough world out there, but we are all connected.
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In Lions Drinking their green-gold eyes are deep-throated as grass on the antelope’s tongue. A kind of holiness washes the pride when the cubs come out to drink in the pale light of early morning. By belonging to each other, they create shelters against hunger and death. Most of my images of animals emerge from a womb of darkness.
In Elephant Kiss I celebrate their happy pleasure of connecting. Flamingo Ride and Parrot Journey grew out of my work with Ann Drake, a professor in my doctoral program who apprenticed with a healer in Borneo who initiated her into the shamanic tradition.

To the rhythmic vibrations of her drum, we journeyed into inner worlds, called the dreambody, or energy body which knows our purpose and place in the universe. Our journeys were usually on the backs of eagles, bears, antelopes. With the help of power animals, we removed unwanted energies which hindered the work of our soul.
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I began painting because eight years of graduate school – wordy cerebral analysis - cut me off from my inner world. Much of me had little to do with diagnostic labels. Ideas set up closure and boundaries and blocked communication with my unconscious. My essential self seemed connected to nature and dreams.

Painting uses the same energy as prayer and meditation. In my best paintings, the images evolve without interference from my conscious mind. I listen and see with my body in a different way. As images flow from my hand, I am connected to some deeper self and something larger than myself. I cease to be conscious of myself as the one making the painting. I paint to find out what my heart knows.