Visual Art
My work is bright, fun, patterned, complex, simple, inviting, biting, surprising, beautiful, pleasing, solid, complete, playful, I believe in digging in. No distractions. I listen to a voice in me that tells me when to go and stop and turn and try and dump out and save and meditate on, and believe in. I am committed to that voice. That voice is connected to my higher reason for being here. I ask myself: What do I do well and what keeps me healthy and ecstatic? Ecstasy in work is essential. I can barely live with ”OK” or “good enough”…. I try my best to be satisfied with what I produce and the outcomes. As a child I didn’t know why I needed to express myself, but I’m not sure I do now either. I have noticed that it keeps me sane and balanced and breathing freely, deeply.
Dolls
My mixed-media sculptural figures are ancestral archetypes - complicated, strong-minded, big-mouthed creatures that come to us from a world that is fierce, bejeweled, effervescent! In their faces, torsos, and limbs, I explore more than the ordinary body. Some have talons for fingers and toes, or sport highly tattooed bodies. Others wear costumes that are glittery, glossy, textured adventures. Divine and magical, they blend the worlds of fable and memoir, and suggest the influence of headdresses, adorned masks, marionettes, and initiates into a secret society where super-figures wield power.
Ranging in size from 1- 5 ft. high, they are assembled from recycled fabric, wire, and an assortment of objects I find while hunting through flea markets, yard sales, antique stores, and vintage clothing shops anywhere from Harlem to India. Geographic places power my ideas, sometimes visiting memories of sites I haven’t seen in decades. Beirut, Lebanon, where I lived in the 1970s, frequenting the covered market, where I wandered through stalls and alleyways in awe of all I didn’t understand, but wanted to touch.
I like things that are stripped of pretention. I’m often told that I make my work look easy. I consider that a gift of mine. It’s closely related to my “teacher and leader”self…. I want you to understand. If you don’t, I’m not offended or attached to that desire in any way. But, I am going to create something that enables you to get closer. As you approach, I offer more and more complexity, things to think about, sometimes quandaries and difficult ideas.
Digital Abstractions
I’ve made things since I was a kid. I’ve always shut myself in my room, locked the door and gotten so excited about taking these journeys into myself. The more I can let go of expectations and rules, the better off I am… the happier, freer and ultimately more useful I am. When work is going well, I’m flying pretty high. I get butterflies in my stomach, I lose track of time, I want absolutely no interruptions, I feel wide open, available to whatever next-steps are required of the work. Sometimes that happens in the very early morning…. 3 or 4am. I wake up and lie quietly. Answers to puzzles or problems in the work, or just questions I have about directions I should take, or materials I should use, or edits I should make, all of that becomes available to me toward the end of my night-time sleep. My favorite things about my work is my blend of freedom and abandon coupled with a deep appreciation and need for internal order and intention… for clarity of purpose and completion of goal.
Illustrations