There is a relationship between all the things
I do creatively. In
many ways I am telling stories and helping others to tell stories. I
might be reflecting on my personal past or the history of a site, the
beauty of a wildflower in cross-section found along a roadway project
or exploring the mystery of the female body. In all my work I am
inviting others to pay closer attention to what they are seeing, feeling
and thinking. I am inviting them to make connections, find meaning
and celebrate who they are in this mystery we call life.
When I was a girl growing up in New York I dreamed
I would follow in my mother’s footsteps literally by becoming a ballet
dancer. All
that changed in high school when I was introduced to clay by my art teacher. I
have never looked back. I received my Masters of Fine Arts from
Ohio State University in 1986 and have made my living with my hands since
then. Art making has been the vehicle I have used to understand
the human experience.
As a ceramic sculptor, I have been inspired by
abstracting forms in nature, tools, and the internal and external human
body. In addition to
making personal sculpture, I started working collaboratively in Ohio’s
Arts-in-Education residencies program beginning in 1986. As a teaching
artist I am able to share my passion about the process of learning. Experiential
learning is what works for me. I am an explorer forever on the verge
of the next wondrous insight, the next deeply moving form, and the next
exquisite color that helps me understand and celebrate my world. After
watching my slide talk at the beginning of one particular residency, a
12 year-old girl came up to me and said, “I never knew you could like
your job.”
A one-year teaching position as head of the ceramics
program at the University of Arizona, brought me to Tucson in 1994. I moved permanently to
this city the following year and found myself reinventing how I made a
living after my son was born. My first public art project led me
to apply for another, then another, and now a decade later with over a
dozen projects completed and many more in progress I feel the role of
public artist suits me very well. Within the collaborative nature
of public art projects I continue to explore themes I value and that excite
me. Where ideas in my personal work begin internally and reach out
to connect with others, the impetus for public work starts externally,
from the community, and becomes internalized so that I can make meaningful
connections.
Although
I wear many hats— artist, educator, tile fabricator, designer, collaborator,
general contractor, community liaison— I have come to understand and embrace
the relationship, value and purpose of all these endeavors
