I grew up surrounded by creative women. During my senior year in high school, a class trip to New York City brought me face to face with Picasso’s Guernica and Monet’s Waterlilies. But the work that made me stand still, rooted in place, was Calder’s Une Boule Noir, Une Boule Blanche. It moved. It made music. I would have happily forgone the rest of the excursion just to have the opportunity to watch this amazing piece of art for the rest of the day.
Then life happened.
Pragmatically I chose a career that would provide me the opportunity to live in many different types of environments, and would always be in demand – community college mathematics professor. I loved teaching and was good at it. But I never completely stopped being creative.
My creative path took me through a wide range of textile arts, then metalsmithing, into sculptural welding and finally making mobiles and stabiles. I use many of the techniques I’ve learned from working with other media in my current work. While my pieces are quite different than any of the pieces made by Alexander Calder, his work remains a tremendous inspiration, as does the work of George Rickey.
Today I enjoy the challenge of creating balance and motion with a wide variety of objects. Re-use has a special place in my artistic heart, and many of my pieces are made from found objects that originally had a completely different purpose. Using techniques and tools from many of my previous creative endeavors, I create pieces that interact with the environment and engage the viewer.