Bio:
I was born on Staten Island and raised in multicultural, fast and dense New York City, a place that defines urbanity. This upbringing informed my lifelong curiosity about people, as well as my aesthetic. I have, though, lived most of my adult life in rural Washington State, making artwork informed by all the practices associated with raising wool (a central art supply for me) by way of sheep - a very “in place” activity- and raising sheep with ever changing practices that acknowledge the Anthropocene era we are in. I have maintained a farming practice for close to 20 years, though I’ve gardened for longer. In the last 6 +/- years gardening has included an expanded focus on plants for making dye and pigments. My status in this particular place as a deeply committed non-native has fostered explorations of settler colonialism, unsettling of people the world over and all the processes relevant to these; over time much cross fertilization of ideas and inspirations has occurred in the making of 2 and 3-dimensional art works, editions and installations. My work engages text and many textile related skills.
Artist Statement:
Thematically, my work has explored issues of global identity, both in place and dis-placed. Because I have looked at this for a long time, I have grappled with many of the sub-issues – heritage, migration, immigration, rootedness and the lack of it; the effects of specific places and contexts on people and the notion of places having edges- to name just a few.