I do this art because I can. By training, I am a Speech-Language Pathologist and musician, both of which I have practiced (and performed) since the 1980’s. I am untrained as a visual artist and therefore have no preconcieved ideas as to how to go about my art. Each piece is an exploration into my own asthetics, beliefs, and motivations.

What motivates and informs my work?

All humans seem to interact with life through the use of some sort of necessary protective veneer – constructs that help them navigate their world, help them see themselves in relationship to it.

Similarly, our skin is also protective. We go through the day not thinking of – and not wanting to think about – the messy processes constantly taking place within us. We are blithely unaware of the bacterial wars within our bodies and the messy psychological processes that we wade through each and every moment – until we go to the bathroom, have a headache, or become physically or emotionally ill. I am reminded of a joke I once heard that rings true – “Everybody is normal – until you get to know them.”

Society in general works the same way: Society has a thin veneer of normalcy (and we like to assume that veneer to be the norm) but the fallacy of that veneer as the norm is often brought to the fore when it becomes necessary to deal with the messy man-made problems in our society, be it hunger, poverty, slavery, pollution, racism, provincialism, chauvanism, greed, envy, etc, when they threaten society’s ability to function.

The proofs of this are the ever-present unintended consequences of public programs and laws produced by people, doing the best they can, but using assumptions and constructs that don’t reflect the many underlying messy realities of our world.

The underlying common thread of my work seems to point to my commitment and desire to deal with and embrace the underlying messiness of society as part of the process of the ongoing emergence of creation, within a sense of framework and context that my Judaism fosters within me.

I am shaped by the startling realization that questions ARE answers and attempts to answer questions usually lead to limiting paradigms that eventually result in disaster.