ABOUT MY WORK

   The whole of my studio is a site where disparate forms become an ensemble. Now there are small-scale wall and tabletop works; jewelry; furniture for walking mourners, and a boxed collection of wood scraps that remain from carving projects. These works grow from and refer to each other, reflecting the studio as a place of non-literary interwoven interactions, where addition and subtraction are in dialogue, where one thing lets another make sense.

   Drawing is central to my practice. I like knowing that this word (drawing) is a gerund—both noun and verb—because it represents a meaningful convergence of action and object. The "eye of my pencil" (Bridget Riley) guides me as I make observational studies and overlays, essential components in ensembles that display process, nature, bodies, cloth, adornment, and systems.

   I choose to work with wood because it is its own subject. It embodies the bifurcated condition of belonging to nature and the constructed world. Wood is uncannily alive and dead. Its grain and markings are nature's drawings, with the possibility to be combined with the things that I make. And, it is a haptic pleasure to work with this material.

AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY

   I was born in Omaha, Nebraska and was inspired by the idealism and pragmatism of the Pioneers who settled the Great Plains.  My high school English teacher,  Josephine Frisbie, lived in Red Cloud and spoke of seeing Willa Cather there. The artists I met at my mother’s gallery, the first in Omaha,  inspired me to make art, but because I was a “good” student, I was encouraged to become a very intellectual art historian. Ultimately I was drawn to studio practice and studied jewelry and metalsmithing, later,  sculpture which explains my allegiance to both the applied and the fine arts.  I am equally devoted to J D Prown’s material culture studies and the work of Constantin Brancusi. 

   I am a quiet activist. I  made anti-war posters at the Boston SMFA with my fellow students.  Studying African tribal objects taught me about Western imperialism when I was a Bunting Fellow.  I helped to found Boston’s Women’s Action Coalition (WAC).  I have been a teacher—first in adult education and then at MassArt.  I recently retired after 47 years of teaching.  I am a mother and now a widow. I cook for those in need.  I treasure the soliloquy of the studio more than anything.

   My work and I have been formed by sum total of my experiences in the world and in my studio.  My work as a citizen as well as my endeavors as a visual artist  is to mediate between opposing notions and my public and private selves.  A life in the arts is arduous and without certainty.  My studio is at the same time a haven and a vexing and terrifying place.  Still, I am grateful to inhabit this space of wonder and industry.