I once was a zombie.
Maybe not technically, but pretty close. I was cognitively impaired, groaned a lot, had no short-term memory, and shuffled from room to room in a half-awake trance. I was still human, kinda, but an undiagnosed neuropathy (nerve damage) in my legs was robbing me of deep sleep, turning me into a “zombiefied” version of myself. As my family searched for answers, I started painting again.
That’s when the lasercats were born.
I make them now for a few reasons. The first is a simple desire to infuse levity & humor into a complex and chaotic world. The second is distraction. The new creative process I discovered during this time allows me to be positively distracted from pain. I use large rolls of transparencies 10 feet at a time, flicking, stroking, spraying, scraping, dripping and pouring paint as I move around the large surface. With my art school & interactive design training, I incorporate traditional painting, as well as digital into the mix, layering them into my mixed-media art sandwich. It’s the hybrid marriage of mark-making skills, along with my personal art therapy, that interests me most about this process moving forward. The themes I am exploring in the work include levity in chaos, information overload, empowerment, the pros and cons of technology, and the augmentation of the organic.
In case you are wondering, we solved the zombie riddle. My neuropathy is under control and I am human again for the first time in years. 100%