ARTIST STATEMENT

I make art to understand the world around me and to heal myself, following the feminist art maxim, the personal is political. My installations, performances, and two dimensional works arise from personal vulnerability, historical inquiry, and material explorations to contradict oppressive systems and connect to family and place. Using my life as source material, I have explored and countered sexism, disability, racism, amongst many other subjects. No matter what form or material, the work merges the personal with universal and societal concerns.

I do this through a variety of mediums. In Mounds and Stones, a series of encaustic watercolor paintings, I reach back millennia to connect with Neolithic cultures and their interactions with topography and astronomy. Through the touring installation I Am My White Ancestors: Claiming the Legacy of Oppression I embody my ancestors in photographic portraits and narratives to understand the impulse to oppress. To probe into cultural causes of climate change and human detachment from the environment I use plants as my medium. The Plant Messengers series are earth friendly botanical contact prints on reused fabric made to restore our essential connection to the land.

View my CV

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

Noteworthy moments that shaped my artistic development.

Featured

1964

There was never a doubt that I was an artist. I grew up in a family that revered art-making. My mother, Mary Hartwell Mavor, was a visual artist. She modeled that making art was the most fun, liberating, and powerful thing a person could do.

1974

I graduated from Kirkland College, where I majored in fine art and made ceramic sculptures, which I continued after moving to Boston.

1976

I read about the feminist art movement in California in Judy Chicago’s memoir Through the Flower. So I packed my bags and drove across the country to Los Angeles to join the Feminist Studio Workshop at The Woman’s Building. I joined Suzanne Lacy’s performance art class which changed my life. The women there would become a community of brave, supportive, and visionary artists. I learned my personal experience as a female, in particular, could be the source material for my artwork.

1978

Taught a class on play in the Feminist Studio Workshop’s Summer Art Program at The Woman’s Building.

1978

Laurie Jean, tap dancer extraordinaire, part of a series of performances presented at The Woman’s Building during the CAA Conference, December 15, 1978.

1978

Anna Mavlova goes to the Airport, San Francisco International Airport, November 17, 1978.

1979

All City Waitress Marching Band in the Pasadena Doodah Parade, December 31, 1979. I was the baton twirler with a mime baton leaping in the air.

1980

Venus on the Half Shell performed at Public Spirit, a performance art festival sponsored by L.A.C.E. and High Performance magazine.

1982

The Horn Dance, Los Angeles Festival of Masks. Traditional dance from Abbots Bromley, England.

1982 - 1983

One Planet, One Plate, a performance about world hunger created and performed by The Waitresses, collaborative performance group.

1984

Wood sculpture series.

1987

Mouth Piece, a solo lounge act and comedy about stuttering. Lhasa Club, Hollywood.

1987

World Wheel: Western Gateway. Collaboration with Vijali and Georgianne Cowan on the Harmonic Convergence. Malibu, CA August 16, 1987.

1990

Moved to Portland, Oregon with husband and baby son.

1992

Walking the Hill, letterpress and linocut printed edition.

1996

Published Strong Hearts, Inspired Minds: 21 artists who are mothers tell their stories. Photographs by Christine Eagon.

2006

MFA in creative writing, Antioch University, Los Angeles

2011 - 2014

Mounds and Stones series of encaustic paintings. See the collection.

2014 - 2020

I Am My White Ancestors: Claiming the Legacy of Oppression: touring installation and public engagement project. Enjoy the virtual exhibit.

2019 - 2020

Healing Images, gouache paintings on paper. See the collection.

2021 - 2022

The Plants Speak, botanical pigments on paper. See the collection.

VIEW MY FULL RESUME