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“If
there is symbolism in my work, it can only be the seeing of parts --
fragments -- as universal symbols. All basic forms are so closely related as
to be visually
equivalent . . ..”
Edward Weston 1957
As a young art student in Brooklyn, I saw rhythm and movement
in objects I’d pick up off the streets: rounded gaskets, crushed tubular
tailpipes, wires going every which way. They found their way into my
drawings and into 3-D constructions, like little stage-sets of a strange
landscape, in which the pipes and wires described the space through which
they moved. Everyday objects came alive, infused with their own energy.
I still use the language of both abstraction and figuration. Symbols and
forms appear which I recognize from my lived experience, and which are given
new meaning. Whimsical objects like industrial and kitchen tools bounce or
spin through the landscape, under water, or in the air, as though rotors,
cams and coffee makers inhabit the same world, where the tools of the trade
and the domestic life coexist comfortably.
During my recent Residency in Wyoming, I was filled with a profound sense of
the rhythm and movement within the vast expanses of land and sky.
Rectangular bits of burnt slag jutted out of the rounded and craggy
foothills at odd and beautiful angles. White-tailed and mule deer wandered
throughout our compound and in the 1000 acres behind us. The reflective
silence awakened in me both a deeper connection with and a more playful
approach to my imagery.
My thanks to the Jentel Artist Residency Program in Banner, Wyoming.
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