ARTIST STATEMENT:

My paintings usually highlight two different themes, one mainly focuses on animals and capturing a sense of movement and life through the captivating style of disrupted-realism. While the other explores realms of darker, more haunting subject matters of fantasy and folklore, that have greatly influenced my life and interests.

Animals are still significantly featured in my work and remain my favorite subjects to paint, though I've greatly expanded my range of subjects with my darker, more imaginative art. Life is constantly moving in rhythm with the space around it and I strive to capture that movement in my work. This may be why I am drawn to looser forms and brushwork and have been since I first discovered the style of "disrupted-realism" in college. It's always been so captivating and expressive to me and I love how the style thrives on improvisation during the entire process. Whether my backgrounds are undefined or specific, my main objective is to create an atmosphere that vibrates around the subject matter and works with it harmoniously.

I use several different tools to achieve this combination of realistic and abstracted forms and I’m constantly trying to grow and develop all their uses and possibilities, many of which are discovered during creation process itself. I also find that the combination of loose and defined strokes make a piece feel more organic, earthly, and at times, haunting. And these marks, whether subtle or chaotic, give my paintings a sense of life.

BIO:

I was born and raised in the small, rural town of Dover-Foxcroft, Maine, surrounded by nature. I did farm work from a young and to this day I have a great love of the outdoors, animals and working with my hands, which has greatly influenced my art.

I was naturally drawn to art and creative projects as a child and I loved drawing ever since I can remember. Fantasy and equines were my favorite subjects for most of my life, as I spent a great deal of my youth working with horses. Observing their beautiful anatomy and movements on a near daily basis, helped train my eye for accurately capturing their essence on paper, and thus taught me how to observe everything in such a focused way. Eventually I would try my hand at painting and I've never stopped! I now live in Southern Maine with my husband and paint a large variety of subjects, but horses always find their way back onto my easel.

I developed a love of music, fantasy and writing stories from my dad and a love of horses and old westerns from my grandfather, but my obsession with all things dark, haunting and Halloween however, seemed to come mostly from myself. I was lucky enough to live in a town that had a lot of creative outlets, such as my local Equestrian-Theater/ Dressage Farm where I spent many years, and it combined other things that I loved, such as magic, music, acting, costumes, dancing, and creative people! It was very inspiring, and from fueling my creative passions when I was young, I knew I would accept nothing less for a lifestyle as an adult.

I chose to go to college as a Fine Arts Painting Major, first attending the University of Maine, Orono, then transferring to The Lyme Academy of Fine Art. After my second year however, I left school and married my Pianist/Composer high-school sweetheart, Clifford Cameron, and we've spent our years traveling and growing artistically together and have now settled back in our home state of Maine.

I first began showing my work professionally, back in 2012, at local art festivals in New Orleans, where we lived for a time. This connected me to my first art gallery, Tripolo Gallery. I have since had my art shown across the country in CO, LA, ME, CA, NY, MA and NH. My work is currently being represented by Abend Gallery in Denver, CO, Moss Galleries in Falmouth, ME and Equis Art Gallery in Redhook, NY.

In 2022, I created a secondary branch of my artwork under the name Dark Hollow Arts. These paintings focus on the darker, more imaginative side of my personality and cater to a more selective audience than the lighter, animal art I had been previously known for. I jump back and forth between the two styles, but my dark art has certainly taken the more significant foothold in my production.

Fueling my ever deepening passion for the darker themed art, is my love and dedication to working at Haunted Overload, a world famous outdoor haunted attraction in Lee, NH. I started as an actor and year-round builder here in 2020 and I keep the feeling of Halloween and darker imaginings constantly alive in my heart. Not only is it greatly artistic in what it is and a huge inspiration on my imagination, it's another creative outlet to work with my hands and has lead me to having my own shop: Dark Hollow Arts, Gallery for Woeful Souls. Here I am able to share and sell my work throughout October and have a taste of my dream shop, while my Etsy shop contains prints and non-gallery originals year-round. Reaching new audiences with my dark art has also inspired me to begin a series of my own pop-up theatrical, dark art fairs in New England called Dark Hollow Events, partnered with Sergio Salvucci of Wildthorn Productions.

I display my dark art at other various art fairs, conventions, gallery exhibitions and in general gallery representation throughout the year, but I still trickle in some of my lighter animal art here and there for myself and audiences that have come to love that area of my work,

Other passions of mine include music, (I enjoy song-writing/singing/playing mandolin in my family band with my husband and father, The Northern Grey), writing dark stories, and of course haunt acting. Outside of the creative, I am a certified dog trainer and spent years working with dogs. However, since moving to Maine in 2019, I've found myself dedicating most of my time to my art career and getting to know the local art community by working part-time at Moss Galleries. Though art keeps me very busy, I still find ways to surround myself with animals regularly and keep the passion to paint them alive, as well as nourish my soul.