I grew up in New York City surrounded by its skyscrapers, concrete neighborhoods and rich history in the arts and architecture. I spent my afternoons watching rusty old tugboats pull freight ships up the Hudson River from our 7th floor apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. 

I spent my summers living on a small sailboat in Dering Harbor, Shelter Island, NY. I sailed the Long Island Sound and explored Shelter Island’s marshes and wooded lands on foot.

 

Art was an outlet for me to escape the stress of New York City and to connect with Shelter Island’s natural environment. My art-making process starts with data collection–sketches, photographs, objects. As a child in New York, I collected rusty nails and pipes from abandoned subway stations. I photographed what I found visually appealing–rusted pipes, graffiti, the ocean. I sketched and painted the harbors and marshes on Shelter Island.

 

Through this process of data collection and observation, I became increasingly interested in the subject of entropy and decay. I came to appreciate a certain beauty in the impermanence of the objects and scenes I observed  –  in how they changed and degraded over time.

 

I studied with a master Japanese potter for ten years and became interested in the Japanese Wabi Sabi aesthetic. My work is highly influenced by this aesthetic, which is centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. I embrace experimentation in my work,  and I explore connections between culture, nature and spirituality, with a particular focus on the Wabi Sabi aesthetic.  

 

I studied painting during my undergraduate years at Wesleyan University, and I continue to work in both watercolor and oil paint. My recent watercolor paintings are reminiscent of the view from my childhood bedroom window. Our apartment building was attached to Riverside Church and my window looked into the stained glass windows of the bell tower. Friday and Saturday nights the church illuminated the stained glass windows and rehearsed the Carillon for Sunday Recitals.

 

After receiving my BA from Wesleyan University I studied illustration and design at Parsons School of Design in New York City. Parsons taught me how to tell a story with images. My first published work was a small book of illustrations. My recent drawings are memories of growing up on the Upper West Side.

 

I work in many different mediums, but ceramics and painting have always been my primary tools. The two mediums allow me to experience and capture the essence of Wabi Sabi.

 

Painting allows me to communicate the feeling an object gives me by manipulating color, texture and light on a canvas. Clay is a humbling medium because of its unforgiving nature. I interact with the clay to find a balance between what I want it to do and what it will let me do. Working with paint and clay connects me with a truth in nature that enables me to understand Wabi Sabi in a deeply personal manner.

 

Art-making is like an uncharted journey. Through process and experimentation, I create art that strives to reflect the imperfect, incomplete and transient nature of life.

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