LEST WE FORGET: Stories in Collage and Mixed Media
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” George Santayana
The over-riding theme of my works, “Lest We Forget,” incorporates family mementos and found objects as narrative tools to memorialize deceased relatives and to revisit historic events and social values. My art collection depicts children on ponies dressed as cowboys, juxtaposed with visions of the Holocaust and the horrors of war.
The importance of appreciating different perspectives and bearing witness to injustices are also recurrent themes. I believe art can serve a higher purpose. Artists throughout history have used art to speak out against tyranny and to help make the world a better place. I’m proud to be a part of that tradition.
The title piece of my collected works, “Lest We Forget,” is a white baby shoe with blue ribbons which is encased in wires and rusty nails. It represents thousands of baby shoes in Holocaust museums around the world, and it is a reminder that in all wars, the physical and psychological scars left in their wake never fully disappear, not only for the generations who survive but also for those that follow.
“Lost Boys,” an autobiographical piece like many of my works, is the “face” of my art collection. A colleague gave me a toy train conductor found on a visit to Westborough State Hospital where we were interviewing an adolescent boy. ”Lost Boys,” the cover story of a magazine, was waiting in my mail. Immediately, the title, the toy and my two brothers who struggled with mental illness, became linked. I added family photographs, a toy pirate and wilderness scenes evocative of Peter Pan, thus connecting my personal life with my 40 year career as a social worker.
