Artist's Statement
As a teacher and artist, I play with a toy box of materials and techniques. I love working with found objects. It satiates my curiosity and my love of repurposing and up cycling. While teaching art in a Middle School, I found the students shared my excitement and creativity. I became a sophisticated and professional dumpster diver. Used pizza boxes became a foundation for three-dimensional personal pizzas. I rescued a mountain of corrugated cardboard and the students created three-foot high Cubistic musicians. Outgrown jeans became canvases for expressive personal paintings. For years, I worked with broken plates, tiles, glass, mirrors and mugs designing figurative mosaics with my students. There are several permanent installations at South Orange Middle School created by my students. I designed several figurative mosaic installations at Congregation Beth El in South Orange. Congregants donated all kinds of Judaica, broken Seder plates, dreidels and Menorahs so that it became a community venture.
After retiring from teaching, I knew I needed to continue the trajectory of using materials that were intriguing and easy to get a hold of, i.e.: free or cheap. So I turned to magazines, flyers , wrappers, old maps and newspapers to tickle my creativity. I love the mix of graphic print and endless color and texture.
I am challenged and intrigued by portraiture. Each work has an under painting to map out color and dimension. Then I get lost in an avalanche of papers, textures and colors. It soothes my spirit and I am lost in a world of layers. It is my intent to capture a moment in time with expression and feeling. I invite the viewer to get lost in both parts and the whole.