Assemblage from 2009 to 2010

: IN SEARCH OF THE PROMISED LAND
This assemblage represents the Ark of the Covenant carried by the Jewish people before their arrival in Palestine, and its modern equivalent is in temples around the world. The ram's head and the Eternal Light are sacred elements found in synagogues and the authentic coin from Israel adds a spiritual dimension.

: SHRINE OF THE BOOK
I decided to make an artist book not as a receptacle for paints and images, but rather as an element, essentially unchanged, in an assemblage. I set it on a clear glass cube with collaged images of Jerusalem lit from within by several candles. Although this bore little resemblance to the actual Shrine of the Book I tried to capture the sacred feel of the place that holds fragments of the ancient Torah found in Qumran by a shepherd boy.

: SERENITY
I collected the elements for this piece in a walk around an art center in Newton, MA. After I assembled it, it reminded me of a Japanese garden where one might go to meditate.

: THE RED AND THE BLACK
Red and Black are my favorite colors, and this happens to be the title of a book by Stendhal that I read for my high school French class.

: PINBALL MACHINE
The title came after I created this playing with the composition of these pieces of different colors and shapes--nothing very sophisticated.

: PERCEPTIONS
Collage of paper, cardboard, leather, fragment of Asian newspaper, rope & piece of ribbon, "Perceptions" on orange painted background.

: FAITH, Found objects ,wood contruction.
"When you come to the edge of all the light you know, And are about to step off into the Darkness of the Unknown, Faith is knowing one of two things will happen: There will be something solid to stand on, Or you will be taught how to fly." Barbara J. Winter

: HOPE, Found Objects, wood construction.
The presence of the rose in this construction, forcing it's way through the hard wood, reminded me of plants poking their way out of an urban jungle of cement sidewalks, as if to say, "I'm stronger than you think!"

: OUT OF THE FIRE, found objects, wood.
The piece of scorched wood which forms the core of this assemblage was discovered in a campfire site at Snow Farm, the New England Crafts Program in MA. I felt a certain spiritual energy from it and to the top, I added a cross-like rusty pulley, which damped down my original feeling that it survived the Fires of Hell.

: WOOD CONTRUCTION (front), found objects, wood.
I envisioned this piece as a very quirky kitchen cabinet. I had a pile of odd shapes of wood, including pieces from a cigar pressing contraption and wanted to figure out a way to unite the pieces into a unified whole.

: I COME IN PEACE (found objects, wire, electronics.)
I found the glove stretcher at an antiques shop and bought 2 of them to add to my "collection" of hands, hoping to come up with some use for them. While playing around with this one, I got it to stand upright on a small platform. It reminded me of an old joke about an alien visitor to Planet Earth, and so, to complete this idea, I created "a space ship" upon which it stands. Many of my works are on the themes of Peace and Social Justice. A pair of later pieces, "Deliver Us from Evil," a reference to the ongoing war in the Middle East, and "I Come in Peace, again", underlie my conviction that Peace is still possible in that region of the world and my hope that we continue in our efforts to try to bring that about. Peace is still possible there

: GRATITUDE (overview)
This work tells of 3 generations of my family, now gone except for me. It was created from a Portugese Bible found in a rain puddle and I transformed it into a sort of spiritual history of my family. It holds birth and marriage and death certificates; an early portrait of my parents before their wedding; our celebrations as a family of five. It captures pages from my mother's diary at age 13; souvenirs from Mardi Gras; political buttons from the '60's; and more.

: GRATITUDE (detail)
These pages show us at our beginnings: on the left, my engaged parents; on the right, my dad is holding David and me, their new twins.

: GRATITUDE "Sanctuary" Show" in New York City
This photograph was unearthed by my paternal aunt, who was also an artist. It shows her father, whom we called "Zayde Sammy," the fourth from the left, and four of his brothers. Two of his brothers are not in the picture. The space between the oldest brother, to the youngest, my grandfather, is a whole generation. All eight escaped from Russia and its anti-Semitism for America in the early twentieth century, when my grandfather, Sammy, was only 4 years old. When Sammy was a teenager, he "went west to seek his fortune during the gold rush. He got called home after an older brother died, to take over his textile business in New Haven, CN, which was profitable thanks in part to the Yale students who appreciated the fine tailoring.

: THE BAGGAGE WE CARRY (overview).
I discovered the four clear plastic containers that compose this piece in a trash pile in front of Medicine Wheel Productions in South Boston, a program serving recovering addicts. All were pried open to remove their valuable contents, probably electronics, likely to sell for drugs.

: THE BAGGAGE WE CARRY (detail).
The cowgirl on the pony is me in front of our house in suburban Metairie, LA, where I grew up. There were four pony photos all together, taken by an itinerate photographer ambling down Ridgewood Drive, with all the seductive powers of a Pied Piper.

: THE BAGGAGE WE CARRY (detail).
Each of the four boxes became receptacles for memories by way of found objects and family momentos I've saved over my 66 years. Visible here is a Mardi Gras coin; a stamp honoring Chief Joseph leader of the Nez Perce; a fox "totem"; a Hamsa to ward off the evil eye.

: THE BAGGAGE WE CARRY (detail).
Captured here are rusty chains, springs, wheels from a clock, and a fragment of a Staples rewards card. Seen clearly here are the Lionel Train platform cars and tracks all four containers are balanced upon.

: THEATER IN THE ROUND (overview).
Some of my happiest childhood memories are of theater performances. The three of us were quite young when our mother took us to see The Nutcracker in downtown New Orleans. We almost had to leave the theater, as my mother told it, because David, all of 5, could not sit still and kept kicking the seat of the man in front of us!

: THEATER IN THE ROUND (Side view both stages)
For years, I had this door jam with double door knobs without an inkling as to how to use it, until I attached a wooden tool that allowed it to stand up. It became a revolving stage when fastened on a turntable, one stage for classical performances such as "Romeo & Juliet"; and the other, for more contemporary plays like "To Kill a Mockingbird" or "Member of the Wedding."

: THEATER IN THE ROUND (Classical Stage)
As an adolescent, my mother took me to a performance of "Medea" with Dame Judith Anderson at the New Orleans Municipal Auditorium,the same venue used for circus shows and athletic events. This event remains one of the most momentous I've ever seen, even after the ensuing 40 years, because right in the middle of a scene of Medea raging, Dame Judith halted her performance. Because of the noise from an adjacent basketball game, she said she was unable to hold her concentration. By the time a ten minute standing ovation came to an end, she announced that she was ready to resume her performance. Right in front of us, after taking a few moments to regain her composure, she transformed herself back into the raging Medea right in front of us, a most remarkable feat.

: THEATER IN THE ROUND (Contemporary Stage and Modern Backdrop)
The most moving contemporary drama I've ever seen was the Broadway performance of "The Miracle Worker" with Patty Duke as Helen Keller and Ann Bancroft as her teacher, Annie Sullivan. The two performers every night ad libbed the famous fight scene where Annie finally succeeds in getting Helen to eat her scrambled eggs with a fork and using her napkin, the turning point in their relationship.

: THEATER IN THE ROUND (Contemporary Stage)
This is the "theater in the round" contemporary set.