archives: 1980-2000 

Ancestors

In 1998 I began a series of small works using imagery from my Light Work series, bits of chiffon with images of my family on it. During that year i created 38 paintings I call Scenes of Childhood/Honoring the Ancestors. In it I reconceived my childhood through the loving eyes of my adult self.

In 1999 my husband and I visited Terezin, the concentration camp near Prague that housed artists and musicians. My Jewish roots became overwhelmingly relevant to my sense of self. I returned unable to continue making art without integrating and expressing the effect of that visit and the ensuing history I unearthed.

inward journey: the underworld

In this work I followed my deepest impulses and visions as far as content. I was interested in creating resonant "body" forms and followed the work's needs, using bones, latex, plaster gauze, and found materials in the sculpture. I painted memories of hanging beef, and photographed the inside of deer skin. I had a vision of ladders made of skin coming up out of the earth. I added photographs and more bones. I called these "Soul Ladders."

inward journey: middle world

In the late 1980's I took a couple of welding classes and created some large Hebrew letters in steel. In the Kabbalah (mystical Judaism) these letters are used as meditative tools, to enter the realms of the unconscious. Most of these assemblages began with spray painting around a letter or two, and allowing the imagery to flow right out of my hands. I was compelled to use earth, sand, and in many cases plaster gauze, fur, latex, and shells. I called the completed body of work "The Presence of Spirit."

inward journey: upper world / light

This gallery includes large scale drawings and paintings from the mid 1980's, all of which began with images from dreams and meditation. Later, In 1994, after completing The Presence of Spirit work, I wanted to work with "light." Finally an idea arose, to create "Ladders of Light" as a kind ofcounterpart to the Soul Ladders. These would descend from heaven, and include images of ecstatic babies, roses, wings, departed pets and relatives. The "ladders" spawned further installation work and small fabric pieces with related imagery.