When Charles Saatchi closed his gallery in preparation for a new expanded space in the Chelsea section of London, he decided to redirect his attention to a new web site for the gallery with a new resource for young art students. Student’s Art, Stuart for short, is a place where art students can share their art with the world at no cost. According to the New York Times, nearly 21,000 artists are already registered on Stuart, 6,000 from each America and Britain. The revamped site also features a forum in which visitors debate art issues, a chat room, and a page where children can create and display art.

The new York Times calls Saatchi’s inspiration “a kind of MySpace knockoff for artists”. But this web site is sponsored by the gallery that brought recognition to young artists like Chris Ofili and Damien Hirst. Saatchi’s office has been approached by dealers, museum curators and directors, and collectors from around the world who want to meet the artists whose work they have found on the web site. Saatchi says that he does not intend to buy art himself…yet. He wants to see where this experiment will lead.

Addressing the audience at the Aspen Ideas Festival this year, the cofounder of Sun Microsystems, Bill Joy asserted “If I was competing with the United States, I would love to have the students I was competing with spending their time on this kind of crap … [P]eople are fooling themselves that they’re being creative in these spaces … [T]he standard of creativity in the world, to be competitive and be a great designer, is very hard: you have to go to school; you have to apprentice; you have to do hard things. It’s not about, your friends like something you did.” I have often shared Mr. Joy’s sentiments, but there is a brighter side. Combine the social networking of a MySpace, dedicated artists, and the support and legitimacy of the professional art community, let it grow, and I will be very excited to see what this incubation period will yield!

In the last three years I have focused on surface as an essential element of my art, experimenting with volume and texture of the material itself. I have made my own paper, combined paper and plaster, worked with collage and simultaneously experimented with imagery, moving back and forth between representation and abstraction.

Handmade paper has become a sculptural material. I can manipulate hills and valleys, craters and crevices, large or small. Paper absorbs and changes the properties of the material I apply to it. At times, imagery grows out of the surface of the handmade paper. When I work with my handmade paper, I am ever fascinated by the textures, colors, absorption qualities and form that it takes. My paper has become a starting point for me. It is the geography in which to work.

I have applied acrylic paints extensively to this geography. Acrylics are absorbed by the handmade paper and often dry with an appearance similar to gouache. Acrylic paint’s quick drying time allows me to build the surface of my paintings with washes as well as impasto layers. I mix much of my paint directly on the surface of the painting from wet pools of paint that I have layered onto the paper. I was pleased to find that through this process I could unearth colors and layers, discovering fortuitous relationships that present themselves like patterns in nature.

I use the qualities of synthetic and natural materials to investigate relationships between the natural world and the built environment. I often work with handmade paper and acrylic paint, but I also incorporate other conventional and unconventional processes and materials. Printmaking and drawing feature in much of my work. I have used silicone, cat tails, foam insulation, and blue jeans to reach the conceptual realization of pieces.

I have focused on retaining the physicality of the surface and finding meaning in my materials while investigating qualities of color, light, place, and experience.