Inuit art has a spiritual, organic and intrinsically animalistic manner that has resonated with me since making art in college. I love how it captures a childlike quality, the simplicity of form and its essence of the spirit of all things, called inua. Their belief in the liminality between humans and animals has kindled a powerful abundance of imagery in the forms of animals, shamans and the act of transformation.

The series Inuit Influences has been on-going for over 10 years. I reinterpret Inuit art images into contemporary, highly color saturated, textual paintings using a wide variety of mediums on paper. In the last two years I have added influences from some favorite artists such as Calder, Edward Munch and Adolph Gottlieb. I am working towards layering, blending and merging diverse imagery and concepts with a goal of maintaining a certain joie de vivre while pursuing a quest for increased abstraction.

Amautik is the Inuit term for a women's parka that has a special large hood for sheltering and carrying a child. There are many Inuit works based on this imagery. I am attracted to the round collar, two heads in the same circle, and the intimacy between mother and child.