Artist Statement

Constructed of thin, cedar slats, these towers are filled with 2,298 Origami Peace Cranes. 2,298 is the estimated number of human beings lost on 9-11-2001 in a moment of terror few of the living will ever forget. In Japan, a symbol of longevity and fortune, the cranes are a plea for peace. These twin towers embody both fragility in their thin elements, and strength in the material from which they are constructed: Cedar is a tree and a wood known for strength and endurance: summoning a lasting peace.

Artist Statement

Gaze” suggests standing outside on a clear night, in a place where no air or light pollution obstruct our view and gently looking upwards to realize a sense of scale and awe with feet planted on our Earth…imagining Earth justice.

Artist Statement

Walt Whitman is a beloved poet, excessive in his unrestrained use of words, his profane reverence for nature, his unbridled methods of verse, his irreverence for society, his candid exploration of sexuality, and his copious growth of whiskers.  I honor Whitman with this volume of his most celebrated and free verse: “Leaves of Grass.” I summon his spirit with leaves of grass cut from his own verses.  Considered irreverent and criminal by bibliophiles, the alteration of this volume calls forth Whitman’s spirit with the utmost respect.

Artist Statement

GMO’s, herbicides, pesticides, nitrates, de-forestation, industrial agriculture, and climate change threaten the biosphere, our flora and fauna, and our very survival.  “Gardening in the Anthropocene” is a tongue-in-cheek suggestion that we may soon be doing all our “gardening” in petri dishes in a lab with artificial lighting for sun, hydroponic systems for water, genetically altered plants, farmers in lab coats, and forceps for harvesting!

Artist Statement

Misogyny carries a gavel, a cross, or a bunch of “forgive me again” roses on its way to the war on women and returns with stories of spoils and plunder.  These fictional books comprise “Misogynist War Stories” as they return from the front laden with all they have grabbed.

Artist Statement

Deadly Sins 21st Century” and is a variation on the medieval Seven Deadly Sins. Recently, I have cast about in searching for how we landed in our current state of darkness and anxiety. In our country, since many of us have grown comfortable and secure thinking that certain values are universally shared, it has been shocking to watch them challenged, eroded, and ignored. I suggest it may be the attributes of: Greed, Deceit, Cowardice, Ignorance, Bigotry, Hate, and Apathy that have landed us in our current time of insecurity and encumbered us with relentless stress, appalling despots, and inverted values.

The seven boxes are constructed of stained birch plywood and dowels with polished graphite ends. The dowels exhibit the sins each box represents. Some are anthropomorphic. Some imply the acts themselves, and some even look back at us.

Artist Statement

Inspired, in part, by the satirical “inventions” of Rube Goldberg, this Automated Teller Machine is a very early example of “viewer interactive” art.  Combining an ATM with a map, dioramas, and the Chrysler building, this structure spoofs the streets of “Madhattan” and the quirks and foibles unique to its inhabitants.

Artist Statement

This sculpture is an early homage to Herman Melville’s masterwork, “Moby Dick:” one of several works of literature which have had a profound, and life-long impact on my imagination. “Ishmael’s Locker” suggests that the narrator of this visionary novel must have had adolescent premonitions of his epic adventure aboard the Pequod.  The ominous, portentous volumes of ocean depths and great white whale fill his high school locker with teaming currents of books!

Artist Statement

“Follow: The River and the Drinkin’ Gourd” connects Peekskill and the Hudson River to history as an important part of the passage followed by those who wished to escape from slavery in the 19^th Century.  Like the Big Dipper (known in song as “The Drinkin’ Gourd”) and the North Star, the Hudson River silently led untold numbers of people in their journey north to freedom.  Peekskill was a part of this secret journey, a stopping place on the Underground Railroad.  As an artist living and working in Peekskill, I want to commemorate our connections to the river and to a history of opposition to injustice and oppression.