Q & A

Q. Were you an art major?

A. I was not an art major. I graduated from Middlebury College in Vermont in 1986 with a major in American Literature.

Q. What did you do before pursuing an art career?

A. Following school, I worked in the public relations industry--in Boston and New York City. I spent the majority of my PR career as a writer (of press kits, brochures and speeches) and as a Creative Director. As Creative Director (at Clark & Company PR in Boston), I helped both our clients and staff think more creatively about how to reach our target audiences.

Q. When did you start making art?

A. In 1994, I took my first continuing education art class at Montserrat College in Beverly, MA. I then began taking classes at the DeCordova Museum School in Lincoln, MA and at The Museum School in Boston.

Q. What interested you in collage?

A. I was drawn to the tactile quality of using unusual papers and other objects to make art . For years I'd been an avid antique and flea market forager--searching for anything from vintage papers to old game pieces to other funky ephemera. I've also always been drawn to the tactile qualities and originality of good fashion and interior design. Collage was the medium where I could make art by combining my interests in all of these visual areas.

Q. What materials do you most like to work with?

A. I love to work with found and vintage papers. I like the way these materials have their own history and unique patina. I am interested in materials can be manipulated and toyed with. I think that any piece becomes more interesting and authentic when there is a level complexity and layering of unusual materials.

Q. Where do you get most of your materials?

A. I visit the Brimfield Antiques Fair in Brimfield, MA at least once a year. It has miles of amazing vendors with fabulous finds. I also find really interesting materials on Ebay and other interesting websites.

Q. What drew you to using paper dolls, pin-up girls and other feminine figures in your art?

A. I found myself drawn to vintage doll forms as I was antiquing. I started collecting paper doll kits, and old doll molds. The idea of using dolls in art was piqued when I saw an exhibit in NYC years and years ago. They were these enormous, intriguing totems utilizing many interesting things, including doll parts. I dreamt about those totems for weeks. I began to build sculptures using doll heads and parts and then started to explore 2-dimensional use of the paper cut-outs. I suppose it was no coincidence that I began working with these doll forms as I was raising young kids.

Q. Why use these forms to speak to body image issues? Is this a personal issue for you?

A. When I first began to work with doll forms, I would tuck personal items or symbolic imagery into each piece. One of the items I included were old weight watchers food logs. There seemed to be a natural relationship between the doll silhouettes with their perfect hourglass figures--and these food logs. These doll forms became the representative 'ideal'. They also became my venue to open a dialogue about the pressure many women feel to live up to this beauty and body ideal. I have been a chronic dieter since I was a teenager, always striving for a body that was thinner and more fit. The art became a great outlet to 'deconstruct' the ideal body myth. I was able to remove the rosy cheeks and sexy skivvies of these iconic dolls, and fill them with exercise charts or fruit and vegetable labels to comment on the real work/obsession behind the good body.

Q. How do you use beeswax in your work?

A. I melt granulated beeswax at a high temperature on a hot pallete. I will then take papers that have been glued and layered, and lay them right onto the hot pallete. The heat and the beeswax seep through the layers revealing imagery and texture. The beeswax also serves as as a nice 'protective' layer for the old papers I use.