I am the Barrel King’s daughter.
I was born in Williamsport, Pennsylvania in the seventies when plaids and bell bottoms were the fashion. I grew up washing my dad’s mack truck in the driveway, running around pyramids of steel and plastic drums at his barrel yard, and waiting by the CB console in our family room ready for when he was in range to hear me say, “breaker, breaker, one, nine. Looking for the Barrel King.”
I currently live and work in Warren, Rhode Island, where I stay true to my early 90s art school look. For the majority of years, I toggled between the non-profit arts education sector and the art/craft world. I consider myself an analog craftsperson and teaching artist who works in clay and print media, non-profit arts spaces and school settings.
As a maker, I am interested in the connectedness between inter-generational stories, family, and the natural world. I explore my childhood in Northern Central Pennsylvania, family stories of resistance in Czarist Russia during the pograms of the early 20th century and how I interact daily with the nature.
I have spent my adult life making art while creating non-judgmental spaces for young people to explore their creative practice. As an educator, I believe in collaborative spaces where making can occur non-judgmentally and students can explore new ideas in various media while building strong relationships with each other.
Today, I explore both clay and paper through printmaking and hand-built forms while supporting non profits through financial management, and advocating for young people as they maneuver the world of adolescence.