Artist Statement

My artwork tells stories, in site-specific installations depicting individuals within their physical/historical context, and in abstract paintings of the natural environment. I integrate text into my work as iconography and narrative. My last installation depicted a French WWII labor camp, comparing my mother’s life of danger to my safe life in the U.S

The story in my current series of paintings is personal — a daughter’s experience of being raised by a single Holocaust survivor mom who becomes psychotic — but universal in common themes: pain translated into beauty; helplessness transforms over the generations into resilience and meaningful action in the face of war, poverty, racism, and debilitating illness. These paintings are largescale, incorporating textile and text. The textile is a vestige of my earlier installations which were sculptural and relief, using mâché and paper products. I was raised by a garment worker mom, so textile is in my makeup. 

This series of 100 paintings was published as a graphic novel, Germaine’s Daughter in Fall, 2025. It tells a story of the movement from darkness to the light over three generations. Since the book’s publication, I have started a new series about the experience of ‘Longing for Secours/Rescue’ at an art residency in Paris, Summer, 2025.

I am a writer and psychotherapist in addition to being a visual artist, so my work has both a narrative and psychological feel. My artwork has been influenced by my political and artistic commitment to activism, and by the emotionally moving work of artists like Charlotte Salomon, Art Spiegelman, Kathe Kollwitz, Edvard Munch, and William Kentridge, each of whom conveys his/her values and history and through art.

I’ve exhibited widely in Los Angeles and New England, including public art, been a community art activist, and attended many artist residencies worldwide. I am committed to making art accessible in untraditional settings, telling stories that resonate with a diverse audience and reinforce our ability to transcend adversity and create meaningful lives.