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.”

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.

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.