ARTIST STATMENT
My work is influenced by the decade and a half I have spent working as a counselor in New York City public high schools. I believe in the reality of what is felt. I present my drawings, paintings, and sculptures as roadmaps to sites inside myself that are invisibile: feelings that have been hurt badly, silent shames, unexpressed rages, sex confusion, bald epic hopes.
My work — artist — writer — counselor — runs parallel to my life — husband — father — best friend — son — they’re all collaborators. In my basement studio, my drawings, paintings, and sculptures distill the experiences, images, and objects that literally sift down the days. Going down to my basement is entering the mind of a ridiculous tinkerer and the heart of a let-loose child: misfit heroes, boxers in love, tricycle hammerheads, wormhole pizzas, a statuette of middle-school Icarus with wings — buck teeth — glasses — falling.
I collaborate with my children, listen to their critiques, and often chose materials that are available to us all: paper mache, glitter, Model Magic, number 2 pencils, crayons, markers, pens. My work is a conduit to and an ongoing dialogue with my younger, hidden selves; in which conversation, unbound by time, we grow up.