I was born
in Providence, Rhode Island, USA, in 1963.
Daydreaming
in my swing, age 1.
My summers
were spent at my grandmother’s cabin by a very large pond in New York. This is
where my imagination flourished. My grandmother would take me out in her row
boat to the lily pads and tell me stories from her childhood during the
beginning of the 20th century. Her father owned a country store with a wooden
counter and a metal cash register that went ding!
when you hit the Total button, the drawer clicking open. There was a glass
display case with penny-candy jars: licorice whips, jelly beans and striped straws
that I could almost taste if I closed my eyes.
Grandmother
Clara Belle Scott, sitting pretty, 1928.
I liked it
best when she told of the gypsy family who passed through once a year in their
caravan on large wooden wheels. The youngest child would enter and help himself
to the candies while the father stood stiff, arms crossed and scowling, by the door.
My grandmother would stay small and quiet behind the counter as the women folk
helped themselves to store goods. They always left without paying. The gypsies
were beyond the law and beyond the social norms of the community. Though this
didn’t inspire me to a life of crime, it did open my mind to the idea that some
people lived lives of nonconformity.
In the
evenings my grandmother and I would dress up with feather boas. My hair in an
elegant French twist, I’d dance about then living room while she played the
organ. She taught me the Charleston. At dinner she balanced a book on my head
for good posture.
After high
school I attended the University of the Arts and the Pennsylvania Academy of
the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. I graduated with honors, earning a BFA in
painting and my teacher’s certification. I married and had three children, then
divorced.
At my college graduation, 1986; my husband, my mother and me.
My second
marriage was to a Frenchman in 1994. Embarking on a new adventure, the children
and I moved to his home in France and I had my fourth child. We enjoyed a happy 5 years together before he
passed away.
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My dog, Sam, and
my partner of 15 years, Raffy, 2013.
Loving the
discovery of new worlds and new expressions, I’ve explored a wide range of
techniques from welding to wood-working, jewelry-making and cement work, even
glass-blowing. I always come home,
though, to my first love—painting.
When I’m
not working directly from life, I use photos to create my imaginary scenes. Attuned
to my inner and outer worlds, my paintings spring forth and unfold as if from a
powerful, mysterious source.
