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 have been toggling between the non-profit arts education sector and the art/craft world. I consider myself an analog craftsperson and teaching artist whose work focuses on process heavy media, such as printmaking, paper cutting, encaustic and clay.
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 the idea of hiding in plain sight. Lately, I have been exploring neurological diseases and how they affect brain function.
I started working with paper when I didn’t have access to a clay space and my studio was my kitchen table. I always connected to sculptural forms so the transition into two-dimensions came in direct contrast until I was introduced to letterpress printing. This was when I could see the process and forms make as much sense as making a mold to silpcast. Today, I explore both clay and paper through printmaking and hand-built forms.