EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE:
Haystack Mountain School of Craft, Deer Isle, ME
Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston, MA
School of the Museum of Fine Art, Boston, MA
Harvard Business School, Boston, MA
Brown University, Providence, RI
Following a 25-year career as a management consultant, in 2001 I shifted my focus to concentrate on full-time, art making.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS:
Sculpture Objects and Functional Art, 2004-2011, New York, NY/Chicago, IL/Santa Fe, NM
Pulp Function: an Exploration of Paper as a Medium for Art, Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA, Curator: Lloyd Herman;
5th and 6th Fiber Biennials/Fiber Philadelphia, Snyderman Galleries, Philadelphia, PA;
Intertwined: Contemporary Baskets from the Sara and David Lieberman Collection Traveling Exhibition (SITES): ASU Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Houston, TX, Palo Alto Art Center, Palo Alto, CA, Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, PA, Bellevue Arts Museum, Bellevue, WA, New Mexico Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM, Museum of Art and Design, New York, NY
Hard Copy, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC;
SELECTED PERMANENT COLLECTIONS
Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY
National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC
Gloria and Sonny Kamm Foundation
Royal Caribbean International Corporate Collection, Silhouette Cruise Ship
Sara and David Lieberman Collection of Contemporary Baskets
STATEMENT
My artworks interpret nature’s elegance and economy, which repeats certain forms – spirals, branches, waves and tightly packed structural modules. My work uses paper and encaustic, both of which possess relatively little-explored characteristics beyond their traditional uses.
Paper combines strength, lightness, flexibility and rigidity – characteristics that make it supremely suitable for sculptural experimentation. I work with khadi, an archival handmade paper from India that is made primarily from recycled T-shirts. It comes in varying weights that are signified by number of elephants – “Four Elephant” being the heaviest. This weight is indeed very nearly like hide, so strong and heavily sized that I cannot tear it without first softening it in water.
Torn strips of this paper become the structural elements of large panels that carry my designs. Prior to adhering the strips to the surface I paint them in colors I mix myself, using fluid acrylics, a formulation heavily pigmented for color intensity and light-fastness. The paper strips’ ruffled torn edges create a complex patterned surface which I embellish and emphasize further, using metal leaf, metallic paints and patinas, and brilliant encaustic detailing.
I like the challenge of creating forms and expressions that cannot be realized via any other materials. Paper’s strength and pliability have distinct structural limits. At the same time, these chancy qualities themselves invite fooling around, experimentation and innovation close to the edge – for me, truly the realm of play.
