Whereas subliminal is hidden or unconscious, liminal is barely perceptible.
It is the state of being in between. Sometimes boundaries between worlds are well defined, but liminal suggests a spaciousness of between, sometimes hazy or fuzzy, like the transition from dreaming to wakefulness, life to death, or dark to light. It is a place of knowing but not knowing why.

This movement between worlds brings to mind Hermes, the Greek messenger of the gods. Hermes moved freely between the Underworld and the earthly world, bringing people messages from the gods and assisting them in their journeys and transitions. This new work attempts to describe this transitional space through landscapes, near and far.

Liminality speaks to me because it reveals there is more to life than what we see. Mercurial and confusing, it is multilayered and multidimensional, mysterious yet comforting, and for me makes life more interesting.

Having grown up in the Northwest I feel deeply rooted here and grounded in our landscape. Yet my inherent restlessness compels me to travel, literally or figuratively, to explore the unknown and seek inspiration. In the sense of having been, for as long as I can remember, trying to stay in and wanting to leave a place or condition or process, I experience the liminal.

Painting for me is an organic process in the sense that I let things come up as I go along. I like to push limits about what goes where and why and which colors to use. Finding the place between freedom and meticulousness, between uncontrolled spontaneous expression and persistent picking at particularly important details is forever my intention. I would like to convey a kind of meaningful chaos, an intentional messiness.

A teacher once said “It’s none of your business what you create” and I agree in the sense that we are channels for something other than ourselves. While hard work and perseverance are part of the practice, so is letting go and opening to what needs to emerge. Unplanned, inspired expression is how the unknown or new (yet archetypally ancient) is born.