Artist Statement

     Growing up in a small Connecticut town, we chose our own playgrounds - far different from the ones planned for us. Abandoned, decaying factory buildings, dilapidated barns which would sway as we clambered around inside, collapsing rock walls, and long-neglected train tracks and their trestles were far more exciting than a swing and a slide. Our world, the one we explored, was unsanitized, dangerous, decaying, and exciting.

 

     When I am making jewelry it is a path of re-discovery. Memories evoke a creative muse that I don’t comprehend during the process of creation, but discover when I reflect on the complete works and the research that went into the creation. Ink-stained pages recall the abandoned factory floors covered in the splattering of decades of spills and unkempt working stations. Cracked and pitted details are reminiscent of the surfaces of those long rusted train trestles we clambered upon.

 

     These pieces are a collection of my memories. Into each one I imbue a small portion of my childhood memories, those special moments with my cousins exploring the world around us. My cousins - who were to me as brothers and sisters - are now grown adults with lives of their own, or have passed. Each piece I create is charged with an echo of the distant memory of those playground locations that I have crafted into physical existence