30+ years of art.
February 6, 2013
Polymer clay. Watercolor. Welded steel. Fiber. Paper. Photography. Pencil and paper. I’ve worked with all of them and got good pretty good at most of them. During my career I have jumped from the very small to the vary large, from two dimensions to three dimensions, from pasta machines and stoves to welders and plasma cutters to x-acto knives and glue. My studio changed from the dining room table to a space in an unfinished basement to two rooms in a historic building in an old mill town to an industrial park to my barn. It’s been a wild ride.
In 2023, for health reasons (both physical and mental) I decided to retire from the professional part of being an artist. And before you say that artists don’t retire, I can assure you that this one did. And life is much better.
Retirement was not on the table until I started taking stock of how hard it was to get everything done that I wanted to do. I had planned to continue my professional career until I was carted away in a box. But life throws stuff at you that you don’t expect and so I decided to let go of what defined me for over thirty years.
It took a long time to stop thinking in terms of putting my work out in the public eye, to shut down all links for residencies, show applications and slide registries. Everyday I wondered what I was supposed to be doing, who I was going to become. Then I found the joy of just being in the moment. I started enjoying simpler rituals like walking the dog and getting a drink each day at the local coffee shop. Traveling to places like Nice, Chicago and Detroit going to museums, walking around the city, and eating good food with no larger agenda other than exploration was mind opening.
Then clay found me. And once again I jumped into another medium, one that I have always loved but didn’t have the patience for. One that requires time for dialog, for intimacy, for honesty. I now understand how luxurious it is to just create for oneself. To make something that at the end of the day makes me happy. It is a gift.
The tempo of my life has changed, the delight in learning the ins and outs of another medium hasn’t. So I decided to rework this website to share my artistic journey and all the different media I have been blessed (and stubborn enough) to explore. Some were more successful than others. But they all helped me to be a better artist and better person.
And to all the great people I have met along the way, my immense gratitude and love for the support, kindness, fascination and delight you have expressed about my work. I hope I made your world a better place in a very small way. And because the journey does not seem to be over, I invite you to keep following me on instagram and facebook to see where my journey takes me next.