ARTIST STATEMENT
The recognizable objects of suburbia: landscaping, sidewalks, trash cans, and brick mailboxes permeate my paintings. The landscapes contain desperately controlled and perfectly presented elements of an environment created to hold back the engulfing emptiness of a life full of living up to expectations. I investigate neighborhoods full of successful individuals who use outward appearance to express their achievements yet the reality is that the promise of an idyllic lifestyle filled with beauty, friendship, and security is not always found at the end of the cull de sac. The female figure, forty something, well dressed, seemingly without a care, inhabits the environment and searches for her purpose in life. College educated with work experience, she now fills her days with tennis, errands, PTA, car pools, and other activities that are a substitute for the career she might have had. Shown without husbands or children, although they are clearly implied, she has become the stereotype of the upper middle class housewife. This body of work examines and deconstructs this environment, pulling apart the individual elements to tell stories of daily suburban existence.