"Artist Statement" January 2013 - or Why I Make Art

I like to surround myself with physical objects that tie me in with the past - my personal past, humanity’s past - and through the past, make me feel a part of eternal time & space that stretch in every which direction. Underlying my desire, I’m sure there is a good degree of pure & simple fear of death.

In my house are stones & sea shells; my grandmother’s clay figures; my grandfather’s painted landscapes that look like they could have been painted anytime between 1880 and the present; my other grandmother’s creations as a talented dressmaker; my other grandfather’s publishing company’s books; my artist mother’s beautiful drawings of children; my architect/inventor father’s accretions grown in collaboration with the sea; my artist partner’s wonderful creations; and my son’s watercolors & drawings that never fail to astound me.

And so I try to add to the steady stream of beautiful things made by humans for humans, that make this short life more rich, sensual, and thoughtful. However short-lived these physical objects, too, may be in the grand scheme of Nature, they help us consciously experience the here and now, by pointing to the past as well as into the future. They are as unique as living creatures are, with a fragile life of their own that will one day end.

I like to use materials that, through their very existence, help me feel a connection, like stones and beautiful fabrics. (Upholstery fabrics in particular remind me of a professional upholsterer who worked in the same building as I in 1990s New York City. He in turn reminded me of my dressmaker grandmother: a professional working precisely yet fluently with fabric, needle & thread. He died, still working in his studio, at age 86. His heirs offered me his scraps & roles of upholstery fabrics, which I still use in my artwork today.) I feel connected to humanity through working with my hands. Humans have always worked with their hands. My hands are the interface between my mind and the materials I touch, feel, manipulate and shape.

With regards to content, I am especially interested in Empathy; here, again, is the theme of connection. Though within our more or less self-contained physical bodies, we are separated from each other for the duration of our individual biological lives, we are nonetheless linked together via many factors. One of these is Empathy. I like to observe how it figures in our life arrangements with humans, and with other animals. I like to think about what Empathy might mean for our universe, and for our understanding of it and its many diverse life forms; for our spirituality, and for what our concept of “God” might be; and for just plain making our everyday more enjoyable. I hope that something of these thoughts, and the possibilities they present, is reflected in the Wall Dolls, objects, paintings, drawings & collages that I make.