“Motherhood is mayhem. My art subjects reflect parenting moments, and my painting technique is a reference to, and mocking of, art history movements such as the machismo of the Abstract Expressionist painters. Currently my art practice is driven by an obsessive-compulsive need to document my three kids and their perpetually changing debris (meaning their messes of toys, books, clothing, and crafts). Daily household and art routines, rituals, and schedules reflect my attempt to reign in the chaos of parenting. Numbers, habits, and repetition are crucial to my sanity. There are 52 weekends in each year when my children's school, daycare, or summer camp are closed for 65 agonizing hours in a row. To symbolize the slow passing of parenting time, I created 52 digital collages each containing 65 artworks layered together in photoshop. The artwork layers include my postcard drawings, abstract colour paintings, and paint mark experiments with toys. My recent paintings are loosely based on these collages and blur the distinction between representation and abstraction. Gestural paint marks use the bright colours found in toys and messes. Recent paintings combine my expressionist brushstrokes with toy marks like those used in Motherhood Hit Me Like a Train series. Rolling a toy train across my artwork as a not-so subtle metaphor for being a mother artist. Toys have overtaken my home and my artwork, and they are always in mind and in my way. For my abstract watercolour on paper artworks, I reverse the ubiquitous toy train and turn it into a paintbrush. Repetitive marks starting from observation are a way of building up unclear layers to form abstraction. Loosely based on the collages, I’ve painted colourful portraits of stuffed animals and toys that serve as transitional comfort objects for children as they grow and learn independence from parents. I have been experimenting with scale though painting and collaging on canvas, paper and walls ranging in sizes 8” x 8” to 8’ x 6.’I am conceiving a visual language informed by abstract expressionism, playful mark making, and the contradiction between my dream of control and order versus my reality of constant pandemonium and mess at home. Routines, patterns, and symbolic numbers are emerging as expression in my art.I continue to research parent artists and their artwork including Mary Kelly (Post-Partum Document. 1973-79), Monica Bock (Maternal Exposure (or, don’t forget the lunches), 1999-2000), and Paul Campbell (Koosh Series and Remote Control Series). When painting, I think of Denyse Thomasos’ powerful gestural marks, Susanna Heller’s experimental studio practice, Richard Diebenkorn’s colorful abstracted figures, and Amy Silliman’s abstraction. ”