Muletide Reflections
Mirror on Fiberglass, Public Art Commission for Lehigh County Courthouse in Allentown, PA 2001
I am a public mosaic artist and a teaching artist who lives in Yonkers, NY. My M.F.A. was obtained from Instituto d’Arte per il Mosaico di Ravenna in Ravenna, Italy and I apprenticed for 3 years. I pass on the tradition of apprenticeship and the skills needed for successful collaboration while working with students in schools. As a teaching artist I help them to understand how creating a public work of art involves making a large commitment to community and self.
I am a Fellow with the N.Y.S. Empire Partnerships which funds artists and schools to be in partnership residencies. I’m a roster artist with the Westchester Arts Council, City Lore in Manhattan and an art consultant with Groundwork Yonkers and teach classes at the Pelham Arts Center. My public art commissions have been installed internationally, but local projects include two permanent mosaic murals at the Hudson River Museum, the Peekskill Riverfront Green, a 92 sq. ft. mosaic mural of the Palisades and Hudson River and a green technology sculpture garden at River Hill Towers in Yonkers and numerous public school permanent installations. I recently received three large scale commissions, one from the City of Yonkers and BID for a sculpture park and another from the Parks Department of Yonkers and WestHab for a toddler park with mosaic sculpture.
My work involves working closely with community in developing public art projects that reflect the community’s interests, history and perspective using a constructivist model to engage the public in the Big Idea of community and in making connections to the real world. I call this work, resurrection history. I believe public art should be accessible to the public and not simply because it’s installed in a public space, but because the artist has engaged the public through research, history and the discourse the public art inspires.
My small works are involved with the notion of iconography and the way images are manipulated through emotional ties, dreams and alter realities. I try to capture the spirit and emotion of childhood buried in memories , but emerged through the creative process.
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