Happy Mess
Mixed media on panel
60" x 36" x 2.5"
Nothing here was meant to be tidy, and that is exactly its charm. Lines of ochre, crimson, magenta, ink black, cobalt, deep teal, lime, pale cream and lemon fall in vertical columns down a soft white and blue ground, but each one breaks apart in its own way: into dots, splashes, puddles and stuttering dashes. The dark teal column in the middle spreads into lacy, irregular shapes, while the yellow and cream lines on the right run smooth and calm. Mandie flicked, poured and dripped with quick, playful gestures, never fixing what went astray. The whole surface feels like a room after a wonderful party, colorful, scattered and full of happy memories.
Relaxed and cheerful, it brings personality to a family room, a creative studio or a lively kitchen. Ochre and teal textiles, mismatched ceramics and an easy, lived-in style suit it perfectly, letting its joyful imperfection feel right at home.
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The Collections
Pigment breaks loose across the surface, feathered forms climbing through bands of color, caught in the instant before they open all the way.
Paint falls in continuous vertical streams, layer over layer, color caught mid-descent before it ever reaches the ground.
At the edge of the visible world, resin, pigment powders, and luminous forms suggest planetary landscapes no one has named yet.
Immediate, unguarded and alive. Color erupts, gestures cut across fields of pattern, painting as a way of releasing what words cannot hold.
Burlap, plaster, and mixed media hold the memory of surfaces worn by time, artifacts of a history that was never written down.
Pigment flows in channels across white ground, color finding its own path the way water finds a bed to run through.
Pigment pools and cracks across the surface, veined like a lakebed or a membrane, ground still settling into its shape.