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I am a self taught portraitist and figurative expressionist. My art is the process of discovering my own personal truth. My medium, discarded clothing, represents the “second skin.” This skin is the sign of our transformability, our ability to become other, and yet to persist and survive in that becoming other. I shed and transform old layers to reveal my true joyous identity. I transform sadness into gladness, badness into goodness, worthlessness into worthiness. I transform women’s work into something new, whose whole is greater than the sum of its parts. I transform the ordinary into the extraordinary.

I give new meaning to the idea of fashion as art. Looking at the notion that clothes make the person, or you are what you wear, I deconstruct what I have been wearing, layers of psychological trauma, and transform them to discover a new identity - the real me, the person I always wanted to be. As I hand cut each strip, I experience the pleasure of cutting what I no longer need from my life. Cut, unraveled garments will cause nakedness, authenticity. I am tired of the false self. I examine the human condition and feelings through my own emotional experiences and life history. I explore issues of identity, gender, race, aging, relationships, immigration.

Discarded clothes are remnants, displaced, odd pieces, leftovers, like my family of Holocaust survivors. I am rescuing them and myself ( biblical reference “holy remnants”) with this work. The hand-cut strips of discarded clothing also represent lint, something that sticks to you, hard to get rid of, unwanted, like the pain from emotional suffering that I am driven to transform.

Lint is passed from person to person through incidental contact. It is a way to connect with others, an opportunity for exchange. There was little emotional connection in my war-traumatized family. Growing up, I felt like an outsider, different, yet I yearned for a connection with others. Now, I brush up against countless others whose clothing wears on in my work. I thread one generation to the next, connecting with my mother and countless women who picked up hooks and needles before me.

I am piecing together and repairing the fabric of my life, achieving peace by piecing together a new world. I am cutting out the old, sad story, creating a more pleasing, colorful one. I am condensing old clothes, photographs, images in my head, and a lifetime of feelings. I am putting together the pieces that make up the patterns of my soul.

My work is a celebration of color, texture, and handwork. There is joy, peace and love in the process of creation. This is my spiritual journey, immersed in every detail, experiencing the pleasure of the now, the hands working, moving in a steady rhythm, the rhythm of life.

Salsa Cures Sadness

2002
Discarded Clothing
60" x 42"

Salsa Cures Sadness #2

2005
Discarded Clothing
65" x 42"

The Scream Within

2007
Discarded Clothing
27" x 20"

The Power of the Pied Piper

2004
Discarded Clothing
49" x 48"

Prisoner of Childhood

2007
Discarded Clothing
26" x 18"

The Bad With The Good

2009
Discarded Clothing
41" x 43"