Artist Statement: Girl in the Garden was painted in 1975 in San Francisco, California. The girl’s lush surroundings represented my own longing for more nature and open space during a time when I felt trapped living in a large city. The girl is in harmony with herself, the bird and her environment.

My work is often informed by a love of the natural world and a sense of interdependence with it. I am moved by the beauty of natural forms – trees, animals and the human body.

I create my pictures either by direct observation or by playing with the medium and allowing an image to emerge spontaneously, which I then develop, as I did in Girl in the Garden.