Artist Statement

I learned to cut and weld steel after the birth of my child. I needed a break from the stress of motherhood and wanted to give my husband the opportunity to spend time with her. A friend suggested I take a course and the next thing I knew a brochure came in the mail for automobile welding. I jumped at the chance. I figured that if I was welding I couldn’t worry about the baby or I’d lose focus and burn myself up!

The welding instructor became interested in what I was attempting to do—create 3 dimensional structures—and gave me lots of assistance in how to think about bases, how to make something perpendicular and the like. After taking the course 8 times, I was ready to go it alone.

The first work I created, a steel painting, got into a show in DC in 1996. After the steel paintings series I began fabricating sculptures based on archeological artifacts from 30,000BC to 3500BC. Galleries in Baltimore, DC, Miami and New Orleans started showing my work and I began exhibiting at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, Maryland.

Although I also work with resin, glass, copper and plaster I still love cutting and welding steel. I find myself dancing in my studio as I go from cutting a piece of steel into parts, to welding the parts together, to cutting and back to welding again. There’s nothing like it. It makes me feel like I can do anything.