"Figure Studies #2"

5" x  5"  x 1"
hair on paper on wood

"Figure Studies #1"

5" x  5"  x 1"
hair on canvas

"Abstract Studies #1"

5" x  5"  x 1"
hair on paper on wood

"Bones of Eire"

potatoes, 2"x 4" x 3" each
Oct. 2003 at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Artists Gallery

In 1997, I was given an Artist In Residency award in a remote area of County Kerry in South West Ireland. I have been in many residencies in different countries since then, but that time in Ireland was by far the richest of those experiences. While in Ireland, I read and talked to many people about the "great hunger" and the migration of the Irish people. It affected me deeply, and at one point I found myself carving potatoes in the shape of boats. I called them casket ships, a metaphor for the thousands that died making that voyage. When I returned home to the States, I continued working with potatoes – making forms by first slicing and extracting water, then reassembling and shaping them. The process was very labor intensive and messy, so I put the work aside for several years. Finally, this year I began to complete the body of work, picking up where I left off. I found that time had only polished those memories and feelings.

"Bones of Eire" Installation at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Artists Gallery, 2003

12" x  12"  x 8"
potatoes and wood

"Cross Slabs"

5" x  3"  x 2" each
potatoes

"490 Grams"

30" x  36"  x 10"
potatoes and wood

"490 Grams"

30" x  36"  x 10"
potatoes and wood

"490 Grams" detail

30" x  36"  x 10"
potatoes and wood

"340 Grams"

14" x  2.5"  x 1.5"
potatoes

"125 Grams"

6" x  2"  x 2"
potatoes

"140 Grams"

5" x  3"  x 2"
potatoes and wax

"240 Grams"

6" x  3"  x 2"
potatoes

Beir Mo Bheannache Chucu (Remember Me to Them)

commemorates the people who migrated from the Iveragh Peninsula in County Kerry, S. W. Ireland. From 1845 to 1960, over 2,000 people left the area and immigrated to Canada, U.S.A., Australia, and England.

In 1995, I was invited to an artist-in-residence program in Cill Rialaig, which is a deserted pre-Famine hamlet amidst beautiful countryside of the Iveragh Peninsula on the edge of the Atlantic coast. While there, I began a community project involving over 100 people, including men, women and children. Each person made a fabric or paper boat and wrote the names of family members that migrated during the famine that they wanted to remember. I went to the two schools and worked with the teachers and students to create their boats. Upon returning home, I attached their boats together to form a Celtic cross which was suspended from the ceiling. I covered the walls of the gallery with the names of families that lived in the area during this time period. This installation was mounted at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco during their “Day of the Dead” exhibit.

The open web-like filaments are drawings suggesting line and form suspended in space. They are comprised primarily of pantyhose.

People ask me why I use pantyhose as a sculpture material.  I came upon this magical fabric while in the MFA program at Mills College in 1988.  I wanted a material that was pliable that I could easily manipulate and that was translucent.  I was interested in structure and forms of natural morphology - like membranes, hanging skins, fragments of body organs or of cells and amoebas.

"Light"

48" x  12"  x 1.5"
fabric

33" x  23"  x 4"
fabric

"Frog Web 1 & 2" and
"In the Corner VI"

fabric

9" x  3"  x 3"
fabric

48" x  23"  x 16"
fabric, thread, pins

21" x  17"  x 5"
fabric, thread, pins

This is part of a larger body of work titled “Hardly There” investigating endangered species and our planet.

The color and translucence of the cast rubber reminds me of amber. Bits of various fabric, unspun wool, found objects, or human hair inclusions sometimes project out of their confinement or cascade to the floor. These objects, though illuminated beneath the surface by the light passing through, become enigmatic and mysterious to me.