I am originally from western Pennsylvania, but have lived and worked in New England for many years. I earned an MFA from Boston University and worked with my former professor and sculptor Lloyd Lillie on many public sculptures including The First Wave, a permanent installation of 20 life-sized bronze figures for the visitor’s center at the Women’s Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, NY, and Fathers of the Mexican Revolution, over life size bronze figures of Miguel Hidalgo and Jose Morelos located in Bicentennial Park, Chilpancingo, Mexico. I created a memorial to Martin Richard, the 8-year-old boy lost in the Boston Marathon bombing. This is a life-sized bronze sculpture of Martin located on the campus of the Bridgewater State University. Most recently, I created a 7-foot bronze statue of a fireman for the Firefighter’s Memorial Park in Bristol, RI. I also recently completed a charcoal drawing of Maria Goeppert Mayer, the second woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Physics for Gather, RI, a women’s center schedule to open in Providence in the summer of 2025. My studio is located in Pawtucket, RI. I exhibit my work locally and nationally.
Statement
I am a sculptor working in clay, bronze and paper. The works exhibited here are abstract cast paper reliefs and a three-dimensional cast paper form. I find paper to be a delightful medium that captures light and detail beautifully. I learned the technique of paper casting many years ago and recently rediscovered it. I am enjoying the versatility of paper and the infinite possibilities it provides in form and types of paper fibers. In the artwork exhibited here, I am using cotton and abaca papers which are short fibers well suited to the casting method. The reliefs begin as a clay form, sculpted in a traditional way. Then I make a plaster mold and press a slurry of wet fibers into the mold. Once dry the paper lifts off of the mold retaining its shape including all the hand and tool detail of the clay model. I’ve added thread, ribbon, tin foil and acrylic paint to the reliefs to add to, and contrast with the white cotton paper. The reliefs represent motion, reflection, and contrast.
The free-standing sculpture was first created as a plaster form onto which a slurry of cotton and abaca fibers were pressed. The resulting paper casts were assembled into a sculpture with a solid base that appears to disintegrate at the top with pieces drifting into the air. I liked the idea of representing change and transformation. The sculpture begins as a solid looking structure that becomes less substantial as the eye travels up the form until it comes apart. Or it could be seen as elements coalescing and becoming more solid and substantial as the eye travels down the form to its base.
