I'm an artist and teacher. My family and I live in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. I’m most interested in telling stories- with images, words, and even fabric. I studied photography and film in college and art education and visual arts in grad school. Inspiration has often come from my own neighborhood and family; I've done projects that document my communities in the rural, deep south and in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont.
I teach preschool through college, and although I’ve often felt that the daily grind of responsibilities puts creative production on the back burner, and much “career focus” gets sacrificed in favor of money making activity, many of my ideas evolve out of my work as an educator and parent. Through my experiences of working with students and their families, I gain understanding and knowledge of communities that I’m not usually privy to. Teaching is an act of performance; in my best moments in the classroom, I am an excellent raconteur.
Much of my art has been about my own family and my position within it. My first photographic project was to document the process of my mother’s illness and death. Motherhood, fertility, pregnancy, childbirth and my own relationship with my mother has continued to be important in my work. After photographing my own family through a major life change, I was ready to venture into the world at large, and began to use my camera as a way of exploring places that were completely foreign to me. I photographed in my diverse and changing neighborhood in Boston. I moved to rural South Carolina and photographed there. Upon arrival in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, I immediately embarked on a photographic quilt project.
I first saw the work of the Gee’s Bend Quilters while I was working on the four massive Kirby Documentary Quilts. Looking at the abstract and visionary art made by these powerful women totally transformed my quilting style. (Not that I consider myself to be a real quilter!) I’ve since traveled to Alabama many times to visit Gee’s Bend. While there, I look at quilts, talk with creative women, and enjoy the lush and vast prairie that distinguishes the landscape of Alabama’s Blackbelt. I’ve been recording still and video images in Alabama since my first trip in 2009.
On this website you’ll find work from the above mentioned projects.
I teach preschool through college, and although I’ve often felt that the daily grind of responsibilities puts creative production on the back burner, and much “career focus” gets sacrificed in favor of money making activity, many of my ideas evolve out of my work as an educator and parent. Through my experiences of working with students and their families, I gain understanding and knowledge of communities that I’m not usually privy to. Teaching is an act of performance; in my best moments in the classroom, I am an excellent raconteur.
Much of my art has been about my own family and my position within it. My first photographic project was to document the process of my mother’s illness and death. Motherhood, fertility, pregnancy, childbirth and my own relationship with my mother has continued to be important in my work. After photographing my own family through a major life change, I was ready to venture into the world at large, and began to use my camera as a way of exploring places that were completely foreign to me. I photographed in my diverse and changing neighborhood in Boston. I moved to rural South Carolina and photographed there. Upon arrival in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, I immediately embarked on a photographic quilt project.
I first saw the work of the Gee’s Bend Quilters while I was working on the four massive Kirby Documentary Quilts. Looking at the abstract and visionary art made by these powerful women totally transformed my quilting style. (Not that I consider myself to be a real quilter!) I’ve since traveled to Alabama many times to visit Gee’s Bend. While there, I look at quilts, talk with creative women, and enjoy the lush and vast prairie that distinguishes the landscape of Alabama’s Blackbelt. I’ve been recording still and video images in Alabama since my first trip in 2009.
On this website you’ll find work from the above mentioned projects.