Photo Credit: Michael Axelrod / circa 1969
Born and raised in a tiny suburb of NYC, I grew up a quirky, shy, pencil-thin young girl…
“It was in my formative years I learned to trust my curiosity and inner muse. This is when disassembling and reconstructing quickly became favorite childhood pastimes. Full circle, they remain a trademark of the work I produce today.
I have been a fine artist and educator of the visual arts for 40+ years. Teaching a full range of studio technique and medium, I focused on building emotionally stable and safe environments for young creatives. I relocated to the Hudson River Valley in 1984 amidst completing an MFA in Illustration with honors from Syracuse University. Career highlights include: grant recipient / National Endowment for the Humanities; 2 summer fellowships in printmaking at Skidmore college; with additional studies conducted in Florence, Italy and Santa Fe, NM. Select awards have been received from the Palm Spring Art Museum and twice from NAWA (National Association of Women Artists), along with recognition in the Smithsonian Institute Archives of American Art for greeting card design. (Thank you, Jim Mullen!) Known widely in past years for my unique approach to the etching process, I have exhibited in juried competitions nationally as well as in galleries of the Mid-Hudson and Metropolitan area.
My gradual evolution to abstraction? Refreshing.”
Beyond impermanence: the beauty in vulnerability and the resilience of human spirit…
“Intrinsically method-based, my work is a visually intimate portrayal of my ongoing dialogue with an ever-changing and disintegrating material world. Drawn in by the decomposition of our urban landscapes, I explore and celebrate our vulnerability and resilience as earthly co-inhabitants. I am in awe of the increasing unpredictability of our planet’s natural forces and envision a deep reservoir of collective psyche rooted within the interconnection of all things. When I shift inward and out of my comfort zone, I feel compelled to recognize the healing properties and infinite possibility contained within the process itself. And it humbles me.
By employing no exact plan or preliminary draft, I invite abandon and discovery to play a pivotal role in the genesis of each abstract composition. I think of it as an essential surrender to uncertainty, allowing for underlying structure, form and texture to emerge from the integration of the biomorphic with bits of man-made debris. My mind connects and finds significance in what appear to be totally disparate elements. And my infatuation with repetitive layering, mark-making, scraping and peeling away? An irreplaceable toolbox for unearthing a beauty and oddly unique order to life's impermanence and imperfection.”
