The Space In Between

Space In Between, diptych, acrylic paint and paint marker on canvas, 16" x 8"

My individual work seems to thrive best when I find 
places to observe the 'space in between', the space 
that connects. Doors in my work began when I was 
at a workshop at the Minneapolis College of Art and 
Design. While the aged doors and historic architecture 
of the MCAD campus was interesting, it wasn't until 
I opened the doors and sketched the thresholds that 
the spaces came alive. The 'space in between' of a 
threshold isn't inside or out, here or there, but a 
connection of the two. Undefined, unnamed spaces 
intrigue, yet scare me. Grief is also an in-between 
space like that, vague, scary, and confusing. At MCAD 
and later at home, parts of the elusive fox appeared 
in the open doorways, a tail here and a snout there. 
Sometimes the fox seems like my unseen and unheard 
self, sometimes kinetic energy, but always whispering 
for me to follow. 

Grief may be a thread through my recent work, but also 
the energy of hope and acceptance is present. Now, the 
negative 'spaces in between' the doors and foxes are 
yielding these colors, great abstract shapes, and active 
lines that speak to me. My new work seems to be 
especially saying something about joy, freedom, and 
hope.