Artist Statement, 2007

Attraction and repulsion.  What compels the impulse to find something so ornate and florid that it becomes repugnant in its profusion, and conversely draw one to a

form that is strangely exquisite as it collapses and transforms in the throes of decomposition?  I have probed these polarities in my work since 1993, mining the domestic

space of women to take benign objects like girdles or decorative chalkware and subverting their established contexts to illustrate the bold and sometimes absurd

narratives of female characters in their varied relationships as family, lovers and confidants.

“I am ready to fall in love. But my heart is hard and my body hard, frozen.”

--Joyce Carol Oates

My interests have expanded and transformed within this sphere as I moved through my education to a mature body of work that mixes couture sewing with digitally

manipulated images, uniting diverse imagery with handmade girdle structures, and casting fruit in wax and meticulously building a new form out of many disparate

parts to be cast again in plaster or bronze.  Time is another key element in my work, I am attracted to repetitive activities that yeild rich textures through obsessive

accumulations of marks or surface manipulations.  Most of my work takes many months to a year to make a gallery-ready object, and I like the distinctive look of

something made by hand in this age of commercialization and use of mass-made items in contemporary art-making.  It was a natural inclination in my artwork, having

grown up in a large extended family of women who were/are “makers,” viewing this work both in terms of filling practical household needs as well as a vehicle of

expressing esteem for the recipient of the handwork.  I was taught to sew by machine at the age of three and have always considered it commonplace to be engaged in

a hand-craft, creating objects of highest quality.

What’s a surprise but something you didn’t know replacing something you believed you did; what’s a rude surprise but something you not

only know but it affects you in some way you’d never expected.” --Joyce Carol Oates

The field of sculpture remained static in terms of material and process (stone, metal, clay or wood) until the 1960’s, when artists began to deliberately use non-

traditional materials to expand theideas regarding object-making and working in three-dimensional space.  Although there are no artists that I am aware of who are

working with this specific set of conceptual and material factors, I do share common interests in issues of sexuality, high and low art references and use of materials and

objects with many contemporary artists.  I maintain the strongest connection with other feminist artists including: Louise Bourgeois, Kiki Smith, Leslie Dill, Judy Onofrio,

Miriam Schapiro, and Judy Chicago.