ABOUT:
Born in 1957, I was raised in Toronto, Canada, and London, England. With my first two years of a Bachelor of Arts, Music from the University of Western Ontario, followed by a Diploma in Commercial Ceramics at George Brown College, I ran my pottery business (Niagara Street Potters), pursued various art studies at Central Tech H.S., and sculpture with Petrica Balanica and Leonard Oesterly, RCA. I then started working in stone. My work was shown in Montreal, Toronto, The Eastern Townships (Quebec), Georgia, Florida and Paris, France.
After time off for raising a family and completing my BA, in 2022 I began immersing myself in the creative life. Upon moving to Brooklyn and finding Gasworks, I returned to my beginnings sculpting functional and non-functional pieces in clay; I also began writing poetry and poetic prose. I have memberships in the National Sculpture Society and Art Lives Here, and frequent Sam & Friends open mic at Roots Cafe. My work has been shown at Roots Cafe and The Honey Badger Motel & Art Gallery, as well as in juried shows at BWAC (Salon des Refuses & Ancestral Voices) and the NSS (Sacred Spirit). I was featured at Very Serious Business variety show this past December, where I read my poetry and passed around related sculptures.
MODUS OPERANDI:
Figurative sculpting requires a fascination with the human body. In life-sculpting or drawing, one is observing and attempting to visually capture the flow of energy, form, and emotional impact inherent in the model’s pose. As I generally work without a model, my work mirrors myself while obviously being influenced by the myriad features and forms that I gaze upon as I go about my daily life . Just think, there are over eight billion people on this planet of ours, each a variation on a theme, each unique in our beauty and being. This abundance inspires my work.
The play between my vision and the dictates of the chosen medium creates the distinctive quality of each piece.
More recently, I have been exploring themes of ancestral trauma and resilience, the many faces of grief, and the lasting impacts of war.
WHAT I LOVE ABOUT…
STONE:
A story rests in each piece of rock, molded over thousands of years, with its fissures, veins of color, fossils, pockets of crystals or dirt, its seeming endurance and timelessness. The intensity of smashing it with hammer & chisel, with reverence and fury, gradually wearing both self and stone down to ever more gentle interaction, until the deep silence inherent in its nature manifests in a finished piece, never ceases to enthrall me.
CLAY:
The thrill of molding clay, of covering oneself with stray bits of mud, of hands sloshing in water as one attempts to tame a form on the wheel or to gently prod clay into form using a myriad of handbuilding techniques, is comprised of intense sensory pleasures. What comes through my hands, though generally intended, often surprises. The building from mud to artform is a metamorphosis requiring the constant relearning of patience, forgiveness, acceptance, delight & ingenuity.