Artist Statement
I have worked both independently and collectively in various creative ventures for the past 20 years. I have responded to my passion for art by consistently focusing my energy to live creatively, produce art, and share the creative process and experience with others. I realize that I communicate through art as a way of living and truly connecting to myself and life. As my art unfolds it speaks back to me lending me clarity and direction. Through it I have come to know and actualize my potential. I have found a sense of peace, balance, structure, and purpose through my art.
Through Creation Art Studios, an open studio of independent study, which I established in 1993, I have worked with different populations of children and adults in my daily classes and through workshops at various locations. I have provided workshops for children through school districts, clubs and organizations, and for mothers and their children in shelters in Rhode Island and in Illinois. My workshops have also been for physically challenged individuals, and adults with disabilities and degenerative diseases in day care centers, as well as the elderly in senior living centers and nursing homes.
In my studios, through the open studio concept, I have provided technical art instruction and have intently encouraged independent studies through thoughtful interpretation of an individual's experiences, preferences, and their daily and interior life. It is through these methods and with the spontaneous art experience that inventive, expressive, and meaningful art has been created in my studios by a wide segment of society. Old and new ideas and attitudes unfold leading students to discover their own unique patterns, qualities, and innate creative abilities. Individuals gain new understanding and insights to themselves. They gain peace, confidence, and self respect that lead toward their own concepts of self actualization and personal empowerment.
I enjoy the opportunity of working with others to create art and recreate ourselves through the process. I expect this work I do with others will always be my artform – one which is always evolving as a work in progress.
