Artist Statement

My constructions are created as story boxes, a window looking in on a stage set in miniature.  I work with found objects, discarded treasures, chess pieces, tarot cards, maps and coins, and, of course, appropriated and manipulated images which I can collage and juxtapose to imbue meaning or significance. It is often during the construction of a piece that the story or meaning begins to unfold; the objects and images carry their own weight of meaning, their relationship and position within the framework of the box suggests it’s import. While I am the director of my production, the meaning of my story is never limited to only my point of view. Everyone carries within themselves their own meanings and interpretations and thus write their own script. It is this very aspect that I find so gratifying, that my work touches people and evokes responses and stories that give my work new and different meaning, as if once the work is physically completed it takes on its own properties and a life of its own.
My career as an artist is very satisfying to me, the process of creating affords me the opportunity to see the world and the everyday as something unique and special, to focus and be in touch with my soul, to be in and escape the world simultaneously.
My work has been influenced by my experience as shop carpenter for the theater department at Southern Illinois University where I graduated with a BA in Ceramics, and years of creating porcelain architectural models. Story Boxes display the architectural and theatrical elements in my work, and the natural progression of those sensibilities.
­I've exhibited widely in numerous art fairs around the country, as well as taught ceramics at Oakton Community College, the Old Town Triangle Association, and at Lill Street Studios. My work has garnered awards at shows around the country, and has appeared in numerous publications as well as on television.