Artist Statement

"Life is a bird. And you are the branch that sways back and forth."

--Erik Fosnes Hansen, "Tales of Protection"

B.A. Liberal Arts, Bucknell University

B.S. Civil Engineering, Rutgers University

I have been designing and making things for as long as I can remember. I am primarily a self-taught artist and I love to learn from books, but through the years I have been fortunate enough to study with a few wonderful teachers (in a variety of disciplines) who gave me excellent instruction and lots of inspiration. My mother was the first of these and taught me to sew on an old cast iron Singer when I was about 11.

Mixed media appeals to me since I like the idea of finding the connections between things that perhaps would not ordinarily appear to relate and so I use a variety of materials and techniques in all of my work. For me, half the fun of making something is in engineering the design--or, as I like to think of it, creating an 'environment' in which various objects and materials 'co-habitate'. When this process works, when I am successful, the end result feels more like a collaboration between the materials and me. Whether it is a painting, a sculpture or a piece of jewelry, it is my own expression flowing from a moment where many influences, experiences and objects coalesce to become something else, something unique.