I took a painting course in college and had more fun building the stretcher than painting the painting so I headed down to the basement sculpture studio where I stayed. After college (while working as a product designer), I experimented in a variety of media (fiberglass, metal, cast concrete – see “Early Works” gallery) before focusing in on wood (and quitting my job).

I started out small, building the ten-inch-tall “Implement” series in cherry wood (see “Natural Wood” gallery). Then I made the “Wildlife” pieces (1988), invented plant and animal forms constructed in poplar and brightly painted. (See “Painted Work” gallery.) With this series I began to create directly in wood instead of following drawings and/or maquettes, and I found myself building lively and eccentric objects with loads of personality. With this series, I feel that I discovered my voice as a sculptor, and along with it, a rich vein of expression to explore.

In 1988, I moved my studio from the basement of my house in Norwalk, CT to a large studio with eleven foot ceilings in downtown Bridgeport. I was finally above ground and working BIG! Works completed during this four-year period include three invented aquatic creatures, each placed in its own 3D environment instead of standing alone on the ubiquitous white pedestal. I had become interested in telling the stories of these objects I was making. During this time, I also built a series of six tall floor-standing works – totems or game pieces – that were inspired as a reaction to the more conservative direction our country was headed in under the Reagan administration. (See “Natural Wood” Gallery.) “Leona” is avarice incarnate. “Still There” is a flag with a stalk grown spiky to protect itself from politics. “How to Attain Eternal Life” comments on the sometimes stifling effect of religious belief. The works in this series are largely unpainted; I found that the larger scale and the more somber subject matter did not lend itself to color.

Concurrent with my straight-ahead sculptural work, I was also making lighted works. (See “Lighted Work” gallery.) “Walleyed” (1985) and “Strange Fruit” (1986) were the first two pieces in this series and both were produced as limited editions for the Parasol Press in New York City. I have continued to make lights and in 2006 completed a new series of five floor standing lights. Someday I would like to have a show composed solely of my lighted works – no track lighting needed. Throughout the years I have also made works as gifts or commemorative pieces marking a certain birthday or event (See Commemorative Gallery). These include a stein made for my father's 75th birthday and the oversized diamond ring made for the occasion of my grandmother's 100th birthday. (Have a birthday, anniversary or special achievement you want to mark with a special gift? I also make these one-of-a-kind commemorative pieces on commission.)

All of my work starts and is developed in the pages of my sketchbooks. I draw throughout the process of making a piece, first experimenting with the general forms and then working out the details. I also like to make larger, more finished drawings with either black ink or acrylic paint on paper. (See “Drawing” gallery.) Not all of my drawings are translated into sculpture, however. Working in the rather stubborn but versatile and sensuous medium of wood takes much time and patience; drawing allows me to go where I might not always be able to go in wood.

My interest in narrative eventually led me into video then writing fiction. In 1994, I became increasingly impatient with the confines of the sculptural object (and tired of packing up and hauling my oftentimes fragile work around New England). I found my narratives expanding outside of my ability to communicate them in three-dimensions. So after receiving a grant from the New England Foundation of the Arts, I made “The Surgery,” a short dramatic narrative with live actors which incorporated my sculptures into the action of the story. Although I don’t yet have a video excerpt on this website, there are two paintings shown in the “Wall Relief” Gallery which were part of “The Surgery” set. After the exhausting and all-consuming process of writing, directing and editing this video (which won the 1995 Connecticut Film and Video Competition), I wanted, for a time, nothing more to do with the cumbersome material world. So I started to write short stories, an interest that I’d only dabbled in up until this point. Little did I know that I would not get back to my sculpture studio until 1999 after completing my MFA in Creative Writing at Vermont College.

Since then I have been both writing and sculpting, moving back and forth between media as projects, opportunities and inspiration move me. My most recent sculptures include four vessels from which sprout fanciful flowers or plants; the first of this series “Impending Motherhood” was built while I was pregnant with my son Henry. (See “Recent Work” gallery.)