The Transformation of Pain series began for me as an exploration of layers, edges, and saturation. I chose these materials - shellac, oil paint, rice paper, gauze - because I love to work with them and because I am endlessly fascinated with the results I get as the materials dry and age. When the pieces are back-lit, they glow and often reveal otherwise hidden aspects of the work.

Using materials in this way, I found that working brought more questions than answers:

• What are the boundaries?
• What is out there at the edges?
• What is revealed as it is covered?
• How is meaning formed and transformed, layer by layer?
• What is the saturation point - and will I feel it when I've reached it?

Following the Transformation of Pain series, I began work on some much larger pieces which became the Ambivalent Passages series. I envisioned it as a further exploration of layers and saturation, and it led me to an inner exploration of how we make meaning from the experiences in our lives, as I sought to create an external manifestation of what can only be experienced internally. I worked large in the hopes that viewers would experience the pieces viscerally, and if that were all that happened, I would be happy.

In talking with people about this work, various threads have emerged, including: references to the Civil War; global issues of women's ownership of their bodies and reproductive rights; mapping internal and external regions; and the transformative power of pain as we metabolize it into our lives.

As I continue work on the Ambivalent Passages series, I have also begun a series of smaller, more three-dimensional pieces using these same materials as a way of continuing the explorations I've begun.