Artist Statement

I invite viewers to join me as I rummage through the debris of contemporary culture--in particular, the oceans of photographs that flood our visual world. I focus my investigations on normative photographic genres such as family albums, news photography, studio portraiture, medical imaging, direct marketing catalogs and corporate archives; photographs that inform and persuade, that function in proximity to the status quo. There I am drawn to both substance and subterfuge and seek to understand the connection between the two—what might be embraced and what must be resisted.

Working experimentally in the darkroom and/or with digital media, I try to make sense of living in our marvelous and heartbreaking mess of a world. Photography is both a compelling and limited medium—there is much we cannot see that we must contend with. On occasion, I turn to poetry, songs and folk tales as I grapple with form and meaning. Sometimes I start with photos or footage I make myself & other times I find imagery and respond to it. To keep myself challenged and engaged, I adapt my artistic methods for each endeavor and do not seek to create a recognizable brand. However, common themes emerge and stylistic continuities persist. 

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My MFA is from Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University and I have a BFA in Sculpture from University of the Arts in Philadelphia; I also attended Montclair State College in NJ. This eclectic accumulation of photos, installations and videos has been exhibited around the country in art and non-art venues—in NYC at White Columns Gallery, The New York Academy of Sciences and The Shala Yoga House formerly on Broadway; in Philadelphia at The Print Center, Scotts Mills Gallery and Temple Gallery; in Minnesota at The Minneapolis Institute of Arts and The Minneapolis Photo Center; in Portland, Oregon at Black Box Gallery and at numerous college and university galleries including Texas Women’s University, Marymount Manhattan College, University of the Arts, University of Minnesota, and University of Wisconsin, and regionally at Millersville, Alvernia and Lehigh Universities. You can also find my work in the book, Reframings: New American Feminist Photographies (Temple University Press).