art makes me make art makes me. i work in a variety of mediums, reflecting my take on everything from societies absurdities to its beauties. Often I work quickly on impulse and find i achieve my best results this way. In the past i have worked with ceramics, but currently focus on latex painting, drawing, silkscreening, installation, and performance art.

Artist Statement My project is a series of paintings which use flowers as a point of departure. The purpose of this project is to decode nature in a non-representational and personal way, by fusing my feelings and ideas to my imagination in visual form. I intend to create a body of work based on my observations of flowers. When I see the flowers, I think about how they bloom every year. I want my life to be blooming like a flower. This feeling helps me create my paintings

i live in the vacuous playground between my ears.

Hava is a visual artist working in painting, photography, and video. She is interested in seeing beyond the visible eye to the microscopic and molecular elements that make up our world, those elements that invisibly control our destiny. She takes the word visual seriously.

Hava completed her MFA in painting at San Francisco Art Institute in 2010. She lives and works in San Francisco's hopping Mission District, where visual inspiration of all forms is extreme.

What is the point of abstract painting? For me it's a response to years of making photographs. A photograph is inherently representational because it is a capture of light bouncing off, or emanating, from a physical form. One can crop, print or otherwise manipulate an image into an abstract representation but there is still a sharp divide between my hand as an artist and the finished piece.

A few years ago I began having dreams in which I was moving and manipulating color directly with my hands. Shortly after that I happened to be at a demonstration of paints, received a small sample bag to take home and here I am. In truth it is a bit of coming home as I grew up in a household with an abstract painter and it feels like I absorbed more of that ethic than I was aware of.

A successful piece is evocative. I want it to draw you in at different times and for different reasons. I want it to suggest or evoke memories and feelings. These will not likely be the same ones I experience. Perhaps they are but at a more primal level. I spend a lot of time involved in rational thought processes. I want my paintings to pull me out of that for a bit.

Some pieces come so rapidly they seem to emerge unbidden. Others are the result of a more laborious birthing process. "How do you know when it's done?" Every piece takes on some sort of character as I lay it out. When I approach it I engage in a sort of internal dialog, an iterative process of making a mark, putting in dome color and seeing what it feels like. Through this comes the form and color and motion. This goes on until eventually there is nothing more to say. Then, like any relationship, it's done.

Finally, I'm skeptical that anyone ever actually reads these sorts of things. If you have please step inside, say hello and disabuse me of this notion.

My painting ranges in sizes and subjects from still life and portraits, to landscapes, plein air and studio fine art. The collectors are domestic as well as international. My landscape paintings vary, capturing the beauty of Nims, Florence, Venice, San Francisco and Middle Eastern architecture. My work is a direct result of my constant change in being, it embodies an identity that can only be brought to life within the painting process.

The subjects I choose to paint have personal effects on me immediately within the first look. By studying them, I aim to compose them in a way that will make others see exactly what had attracted and moved me from the start.

My work is informed by exploration of the natural realm and minor scientific study including geology, botany and physics. I reference physical transformation in natural phenomena, examine humanity's place in natural historical context, and note the marks we leave behind in a new series, "Trace." My work is driven by exploration of my immediate environment.  An urban dweller, I observe both natural processes and the effects of man on his environment. The physical process of the painting resembles some of the forces inherent in natural phenomena. Surface is an all-important element, with a history of surfaces, materials and forces beneath the finished one. Applying layers over months, dripping, pooling, splashing, tilting, and sanding - all are part of a process that reflects my subject matter, be it nature or the marks we leave in the urban landscape.

The forest is my spiritual haven, a personal refuge. It is a peaceful place to relax, walk, meditate, and be with my own thoughts. Silence is found here, until I listen closely and then it becomes alive in its own chorus. My spirit soars as my body restores balance. I feel the weight and presence of the tall, thick trunks that bend as they hit the sky, like guardians that shield me from the world beyond. As sunlight sprinkles through moving leaves far above, it reminds me of the colored light that filters through the clerestory stained glass windows of great churches.

I believe there are many such spaces as these, places that give people peace and clarity and help us remember our innate wellness. These places are where problems become less important, and where we can simply remember the joy of living. I have been thinking about how we are all connected. I believe there is an energy flowing through all things, whether it is rock, tree, sky or human. This belief has led me to reflect upon my choice to paint the forest landscape as an expression of a worldview of joyful interdependence.