Here is a list of some of the things I think about in relation to my work: 

MATERIALS AND TOOLS: Foil, String, Nails, Pins, Red Paint, Glass Chunks From Glassblowing Leftovers, Assorted Chandelier Crystals, Artificial Flowers, Fruits, Leaves, Moss (Real And Artificial), Glittered, Metallic, Plastic And Glass Jewels, Berries, And Artificial Decorations On Wire And Various Materials From The Floral And Garment Districts. “Golden” Acrylic Paints, Mediums And Gels, “Elmers” Glue, Wire Mesh, Colored Wires (Many Sizes And Weights), Antique Natural History Charts And Prints, Vintage Silkscreened Wallpapers, “Yes” Glue, Bones, Skeletons (Artificial And Real), Antlers, Pearls, Colored Glitter, Hair Nets, “Swarovski” Crystals, Foam Core, Canvas, Rice Paper, Paint Brushes, Palette Knives, Razor Blades, Scissors, X-Acto Knives, Various Pinking Shears, Aluminum Foil, Holographic And Metallic Papers, Sequins, Beads, Cloth, Cotton Balls, Artificial Eyeballs, Pencils, Pens, Stabilo Crayons, Charcoal Sticks, Watercolor, Gouache, Sketchbooks, Clear Acetate, Pushpins, Silver And Gold Scouring Pads, Yarns And Threads, Epoxy, Glue Gun, Map Pins, Taxidermied Butterflies And Bugs, Roosters, Artificial Birds, Cactus Spines, Beach Debris, Starfish, Dried Flowers, Stems And Sticks, Junk, Gold Leaf, Painted Porcelain Flower Fragments, Feathers, Ribbons, Toothpicks, Tape And More…..

INSPIRATIONS: Indian And Persian Miniatures, Sunsets, Palm Trees, Walking On My Street, My Garden, Spider Webs, Asian And Vintage Ethnic Textiles, Crazy Quilts, Embroidery And Beadwork, Haitian Sequined Vodoo Flags, Suzanis, Saul Steinberg Drawings, Murano Glass, Venice, Italy, Palazzo Fortuny, Food, Sublime Spaces, Japanese Prints, Aboriginal Paintings, Frida Kahlo, Outsider And Folk Artists, Kandinsky, Matisse, Reading Books, Music, Film, Anything That Grows, Art Forms And Patterns In Nature, Flowers And Foliage, Botanical Illustrations, Organic Forms, Human Anatomy Prints, Bones, Internal Organs And Veins, Roots And Branches, The Ocean, A River Or A Lake, “Holy Grotesques” (Magic, Miracles And Mysteries), Eccentrics, Bright Color, Sparkle And Light, Chaos, The Moon, My Dreams And Visions (Symbol And Metaphor), Primordial Impulses, Archetypes, Ornament, Old Wallpapers, Ceramics, Hardware Stores, My Library, Shells, Underwater Creatures, Insects And Animals, Butterflys, Cellular Patterns, Surrealism, Mandalas, Reflective Surfaces, India, Hawaii And Tropical Paradise, Henri Rouseau, Gaugin’s “Tahiti”, El Anatsui, Klimt, Tony Duquette, Ernst Haeckel’s “Art Forms In Nature”, Lari Pittman, Philip Taaffe, Ballet Rousse, Dada Photomontage And Photography, Avant-Garde Graphic Design And Posters (Early-Mid 1900’s), Kitsch And Flea Markets, Crystals, Gems And Coral, Weather, The Cosmos And Science, Max Ernst, Man Ray, Art In Praise Of The Divine, Zen, Tao, Buddhism, Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell, Alchemy And Mysticism, Sublime Abundance, Beauty And More…

• Mandala-like constructions depicting the interconnectedness of nature.

• Transcendence of spirit into matter, energy into image, desire into drawing.

• Complexity of the human body; internal organs, bones, veins….the stuff we are made of.

• Decoration, design, architecture, and especially beauty.

• Symbols, dreams, metaphors, and the mysteries of my inner life, and human consciousness.

• Vines, branches, flowers, fruits, underwater creatures and plants, shells, insects and animals.

• Diagrams, doodles, patterns and drawings, (and the process involved).

• Color, exoticism, eroticism, passion, sparkle and light.

• Science, fractals, cosmology, molecular and cellular patterns found in nature.

• Tension of Opposites; rational–intuitive, feminine–masculine, symmetry–chaos, old–new, control–surrender, universal–personal, death–life, fluidity–structure, light–dark, yin–yang, union–dissolution, nature–artifice, transparency–solidity, harmony–conflict, microcosm–macrocosm, beauty–decay.

In my art I explore the paradoxes and contradictions inherent in the human experience, life's beauty and its shadow. As my work takes on a life of its own, the tension that the opposite forces create becomes apparent. Through the frustrations of art making, searching in the dark for that elusive image to materialize, I must surrender and allow it to unfold as it will. By accepting my own imperfect humanity, with all its idiosyncrasies, my authentic self is revealed...the work, like a dream, emerges from that unknown place in me that holds the true reflection of who I am.

- Miriam Wosk




My body of work expresses the yin/yang quality of life; the paradoxes and contradictions inherent in experience, the mystery of the shadow side of life, and the tension that the opposite forces create. My art inhabits an instinctual and soulful feminine world that emerges directly from a personal vision.

Beside the beauty of life lurks a shadow. In the shadow, the dark. Beauty becomes a modus operandi as a way of metaphorically staving off death, and making everything in life as bountiful and alluring as possible. To make things gorgeous is to give solace, and nurture a troubled or fearful spirit. If all’s not right in life, I can escape into the illusions created in a exquisite and flawless world of my own making. However the contradiction exists between the idealized version of my intention, and the imperfection of being human. In the space created by the inability to express myself in this optimal way, lies the true reflection of who I am. Through the frustrations of art making, in giving up my delusions of perfection, and accepting my own imperfect humanity with all its eccentricities and idiosyncrasies lies my authentic self. From this struggle as an artist comes forth the realm of unconscious contradictions. Art made from this deep personal place does not lie, just as one’s dreams do not lie. It emanates from that unknown place in myself, if only I can get out of my own way, and stop trying to control that voice. There is often a battle of wills going on between the intellect and the instinct. Which part of oneself can you trust, how can you find the right balance? The artistic process mirrors the struggle of those voices as I try to express all that I am. All art is autobiographical as it reflects the time and place and person who made it, so as a visual journal of a life it is most meaningful. As a means of growth and healing it has proved invaluable.

Some of the dualities inherent in the language of my art are apparent. The ordinary world of kitsch, pop, and graphic references as opposed to allusions referring to the loftier spiritual world. The world of reality as it contends with the symbolic or dream world. The urge to be simple and clear as it wrestles with the chaos, complexity, and baroque urges. The use of mechanical and computerized means of reproduction as contrasted with the handmade quality. The desire to explore nature, women and their bodies, and all living things are juxtaposed against the inanimate object, the artifact that was designed by people, the architectural, constructed thing. So this work embraces both blood and decoration, sequins and skeletons, anguish and exhilaration. Therein lies the intensity, excitement, and self-discovery.

The intangible realm of the spirit and psyche are equally important to me. I keep diaries, sketchbooks, and journals, record, study and paint my dreams, contemplate Jung, and try to understand the mysteries of the universe as well as those of my own mind. Unexplainable phenomena and the occult all speak the same language as the unfathomable conundrum of artistic expression. The process and language of art making is the same as dreaming. It flows through me in an unconscious and symbolic way, and maybe with some time and distance and objective looking, I will come to understand what the dream or the art were communicating to me. However it always delivers what I need at the time, what is inevitable has a way of appearing, sometimes again and again in different ways, sometimes for a lifetime, until the lessons are learned. And then a new body of work will start to appear, each piece acting as a stepping stone for the one before. We can’t force the leap, as much as we’d like to. We create these building blocks and grow into our journey with newly acquired consciousness, skills, and sensitivity, never reaching ultimate fulfillment, but perhaps arriving closer to that place that we always knew and somehow forgot. I have faith in this process because I know I feel good when I do it. I can loose myself in the work, and transcend space and time in those rare moments when it’s really happening. When I don’t express myself I can witness how choked and stifled I feel, not living my life to its full potential. Creating art is a process that makes me feel truly alive. In this symbol lies the healing, the integration of the totality, and the mystery of life.

- Miriam Wosk



The “Pattern Paintings,” which are the earliest paintings in this series, explore patterns of human experience and perception as a stream of consciousness of visual ephemera. These consist of layers of diagrammatic sewing patterns, children’s games and drawings, anatomical references, birds, flowers, abstractions and decorative embellishments, sequins and skeletons, bodies and beads, the sacred and mundane, collaged and painted into an invented conglomeration that imply a magical and strange new world. Transformation of simple materials into objects of beauty and spiritual power incorporates the intangible realm of the spirit and psyche. These surrealist constructions are both symbolically autobiographical, as well as a portrait of how I see the outer world; nonsensical, random, and somewhat arbitrary in it’s choices.

The composition of the later works suggest mandalas, effusive bouquets of internal organs, veins, vines, flowers, branches, coral, embroidery and wallpaper designs, shells and seaweed forms, bones, leaves, spirals, and erotic female openings, all growing out of each other and becoming a new phenomena unto itself. It emerges out of a desire to explore the interconnectedness of all of nature, and to discover a certain order in the chaos of life. These pictures reflect the journey into the unconscious mind and reveal the unknowable by investigating a thought, a moment, and image that intrigues me. By infusing my paintings with the obsessions and miseries that haunt my imagination the process takes on a life of it’s own, and I loose myself in the daydreams and play of making the work. I am searching for a balance between spontaneity and design, meaning and beauty, the decorative and profound, the body and the soul, life and death. B choosing to investigate the interior of the body, I hope to create a body of work that flows from the heart, to touch the deepest core of myself and to discover my vision in this exploration.

- Miriam Wosk