A R T I S T 'S S T A T E M E N T
As people travel around the world, they bring their traditions and knowledge with them, mixing their culture with those of
new ones. My own migrations have been important in shaping the art I produce: Landscapes both real and imagined, such as in Jerusalem and the Sudan.
1. Jerusalem
While enrolled at Bryn Mawr college, I lived for a few years in Jerusalem. From my terrace in Abu Tor, I looked out on the Old City, with its rays of light shifting and refracting on the golden dome of the Mosque of Omar. Colors, dimensions and shapes, entirely new to me, still inform my work. That golden light has influenced my use of the values and textures of gold marker, paint and leaf.
2. The Sudan
Tools and materials have always stimulated my creative process. Early on, a rapidograph pen Transformed my idiosyncratic doodles into fine ink designs. The son of the Dinka chief from the southern Sudan found them evocative of his tribe. He asked me to illustrate a book of Dinka folktales he was assembling.”Dinka folktales of the Sudan” was published in 1974 with my illustrations.
Over time , I came to see a sheet of paper as the stage, the space in which movement brings images. A set of 48 colored brush pens infused my designs with a toe tapping vibrancy and energy. My recent work in mixed media with fabric, tissue paper and painted paper collage has further freed me to create a rhythm, momentum, and-ultimately- a production. Working with one piece at a time, I wait for the moment the design comes to life, the dancers take the stage and the shapes begin to move and leap and frolic. It’s that joy, and finding results through both experimentation and happy accidents that has me excited about the opportunities to share my work and to find out what speaks to a viewer about a particular work.