July 2019

I’ve come full circle.

When I was a toddler living in Brooklyn, my mom would sit me on the floor with scrap paper and crayons and I’d "keep myself busy for hours", she said. When I was a bit older I’d play with my dolls, make things out of paper (like a pocketbook for my mom) or I’d be in our basement painting (making a mess, really) with canvas and paints. When I was 9 years old my mom, single at the time, took me to oil painting classes at the home of Ann Basilico. I will never forget that woman’s name, my first mentor, and I will always be so grateful to my mom who sacrificed things she likely wanted to buy for herself in order to afford those classes for me. I'm proud to say that my mom was most definitely my first and biggest fan.

Right about that same time, mom also encouraged me to get out of the house to meet and play with the girls down the block. But I was reluctant.

You see, I was a loner. I enjoyed my time alone playing with my dolls, making things out of paper, coloring with crayons and painting with oils. 

Just being creative, all by myself.

As the years passed, I dabbled in many mediums, e.g., oils, acrylics, watercolors, alcohol inks, scratchboard, ceramics, assemblage, porcelain dolls, paper dolls, carved eggs, Washi eggs. 

In 2013, I fulfilled a dream and took a  trip to Italy. Well, it wasn't just a trip. I stayed for three months. THAT was the dream., i..e., to live there. I took over 2000 photos while there and finally in 2017, I began to paint some of them. Eventually, I'd like to paint ALL of them!

I felt that these scenes, with all the old stone, just HAD to be painted with oils, like the old masters from the same region. Painting these images in OILS was a trip down memory lane. 

Recently, I needed a bit of a diversion again so I played with broken glass - something I just had to try. I used mannequins as my substrate and lights to illuminate them down their spines. I call these my 'Sushumna Series'. The Sushumna is the energy that flows up and down the spine from the navel to the crown. It is the energy within all of us, from which our chakras attach. I loved doing these! The Key to His Heart is the fifth in the series. He doesn't light up but he does have a certain energy and is anatomically correct. The key hangs from...well...you'd have to see it in person. to really appreciate it. Or look very closely at his side view. :D

Now that I got that out of my system, I'm back to oil painting. I just love painting with oils. The smell takes me back to Brooklyn, to my basement and Ann Basilico's basement - I love that smell! And I love how oils blend and flow. I love the process. I even love cleaning my  palette and brushes! Really, I do. Oil painting (alone) is definitely my main 'thang'.

Yep. Full circle.

Thank you for reading my story.