I am a collage of everything I experience.

I’ve been cutting and pasting since the 3rd grade! This technique enabled me to win two prestigious blue ribbons in the “Clean up, Paint up, Fix up” and “Save your Vision” poster contests at the famed Longstreth Elementary school in Philadelphia. Really, this is how it all began!

Many times i will see images that spark ideas and excitingly start placing them, or parts of them, in various contexts. But sometimes it’s the other way around. I will have a dream or get an idea and begin searching for the right materials to express it. I never quite know what may appear.

I still love taking bits and pieces of images that I find everywhere, and rearranging them to create unexpected whimsical and mysterious stories.

Many of my visual narratives come from my extensive library of photographs — which I mainly take with my iPhone. Others come from magazines, old books, old family photos, found objects and decorative papers. I’m an avid hunter and gatherer.

In some of my pieces I begin with an abstract painted surface that many times will help me conjure up images, dreams, memories or personal stories I want to tell.

My mixed media portraits may include photo transfers, drawing, painting, sewing, photo copying — and lots of cutting and pasting!

Currently I’m printing on silk organza and layering it over collaged figures to create a new depth of mystery and wonder.

Stay tuned…