Luscious

Luscious
16”x20” mixed media collage.
2025

Introducing another 3D floating collage that I call Luscious. Like many of my works, color is the driving inspiration behind my collages. This time I knew I wanted to work with a combination of red, orange and magenta.

As I was building it, I kept thinking about how the colors reminded me of the sunrises and sunsets of Michigan, which are welcome respites from the state’s numerous gray days.

As I worked on it, I started seeing this collage as a bowl of mangoes, plums and other tropical fruits. The colors and shapes made me think of richness and abundance, a feeling I was really clinging too as I was navigating a family emergency at the time and was beyond stressed. I knew I was on the right path with the direction for this collage when, after an especially stressful day, I looked down at the it and just smiled as the colors lifted my spirits.

I realize that is the crux of my work; it’s about instilling hope through color and soft shapes and edges. Hope is essential now, especially in these terrifying times with everyone carrying so much on their spirits now. I want my work to be a refuge from that because creating these works is exactly that for me.