In my work, I have consistently—and persistently—focused on expressing what I call the space between silence and sound. Profoundly hearing impaired, I am acutely aware of the vagaries of communication: the tension between confusion and clarity, chaos and precision.  My two-dimensional works and installations indicate how our five senses inform, influence, and intercept one another in the complicated processes of encoding and decoding language.

Printmaking is a medium intimately tied to my own somatic senses as well as my concepts about communication. Proceeding eclectically, I combine traditional techniques (etching, woodcut, relief, and dry point) with contemporary processes, materials, and iconography. Repetition, for instance—an important element in printmaking—is essential for me to understand spoken word.    As in a musical composition, I introduce and replicate central elements and symbols, weaving them into different patterns and rhythms. I create structures and images that suggest body parts, the cochlea and ear drum, instruments, neural networks, and language systems. Over many years of experimenting, I have found ways to print intaglio on fragile, non-porous Player Piano Scrolls, a near perfect material metaphor because the digital-like holes (the absence of the paper) denote the presence of sound. I use their shadows, ones from collaged elements and faux shadows to evoke the idea of echoes.

Copper metal, essential in hearing aids, is likewise essential in my work. Maiming the metal with twisting, scribing, carving, and burning (etching) represents the destruction of my auditory nerve cells. And, because copper enables an ongoing alteration of the matrix, it always reminds me of the possibility for transformation. 

My explorations in varied media in two and three-dimensions as well as sound evoke a sense of order as well as orderly growth gone awry. I believe the aberrant, the rogue and the wayward signals are the ones that can stimulate questions and help guide us to an expanded understanding of our worlds and ourselves.