The artist's early years: prolific, yet monochromatic

The artist's early years were marked by a willingness to experiment with technique but not color. Despite the ready availability of multiple colors, she chose to work primarily in a custom-mixed blue-green shade now known as "a-LIZA-rin blue."

Fingers, hands, stamps, and a variety of paintbrushes were all used, sometimes within the same work. Of particular interest are the larger masses of color in many works, which are washes the artist applied over top of previously stamped animal figures.

The artist was also open to collaboration, as shown in this twelve-piece installation. The work in the upper left of the photograph was produced in cooperation with another artist, who painted the "Z" and "A," as well as the series of dots in the lower right of the paper.

Fingerpaint and tempera paint on paper, February 2008.

The artist's output was prodigious, at times outpacing her supply of traditional art paper. You may be surprised to see that the smaller, deeper green prints in this installation were actually painted on the backs of recycled office paper.

Focus for a moment on the piece in the lower left of the photograph above. Here we can see the beginnings of the artist's signature "four colors on one brush" style.

Tempera paint on paper, February 2008.

Often imitated, this style requires a delicate touch to keep the colors from melding together into an earthy (but undesired) brown color.