Artist Statement: I have been a working artist for about twenty years, since making the shift from writing and editing to visual art. I’m a former poet, but I remain interested in a lot of the same things: exploring layers of memory and using juxtaposition to create meaning in my work. I began working with bird imagery when I first started to make art seriously. I find them to be endlessly fascinating, so familiar but also wild and unknowable. I have come to appreciate their strength as well as their fragility in the face of human impact and climate change. Many of my paintings feature starling murmurations, which are so beautiful in their shapes and movements and also kind of crazy when you think about how fast these masses of birds are able to fly without crashing into each other. I would love for people to stand before an expanse of birds, to see their wildness and beauty, and to be reminded that they are worth protecting. Along with poetry, music is an important part of my practice as an artist. I have always loved to sing, and I listen to all kinds of music in the studio when I am working. Sometimes it’s a new artist and I listen to an album on repeat until I’m (almost) sick of it. Other times, I’ll play more of a wide range of songs and styles. I find that music grounds me in the moment, brings energy to the studio space, and helps connect me to my creativity. The idea of this piece is to wrap the piano with images of starlings, marrying the power and beauty of their acrobatic flying with the dips and soars and rhythms of music. It’s a love letter to creativity, whatever form it takes.
I am a mixed-media painter living and working in Concord, MA. My artwork has been featured at galleries and museums throughout the country and is held in private and corporate collections. I have curated several shows at Concord Art, where I am the head of the Exhibitions Committee and on the Board of Trustees. I love being a part of one of the oldest art non-profits in the country and playing an active role in Concord’s vibrant art community.
