My assemblage boxes are where this whole body of work all began over 25 years ago .... 

 

I had some leftover tile from an arty tile floor I had just layed .... I also had been walking along railroad tracks picking up scrap metal and I had been pulling old furniture parts out of my neighbors trash. I was having a yard sale and I decided to make some planter boxes to combine my 2 loves - gardening and art. I set my planter boxes out in my yard sale that day and orange butterflies appeared all over my yard and 4 galleries stopped by and wanted my work.  Lol.  Over the next few years my boxes started growing legs and then they started dancing and twirling and expressing themselves in very human and soulful ways.

 

Making my boxes taught me a lot about life and trusting. When I started a piece, I never knew where it was going to take me or how it would turn out.. but the more I just stayed in the FLOW and played and found the beauty in the object that was right in front of me, the more tickled I was with the final outcome. I loved the tiny details... the flaws... the bent rusty nail... that tacky plastic belt somehow made sense and even seemed elevated. Like human beings, EVERYTHING not only had A PLACE but was SPECIAL when SEEN with the right eyes!  They made me laugh and I couldn't be sad when I worked on them. They lifted me up! They taught me alchemy... the art of taking the mundane and turning it into Magic! I LOVED THE PEOPLE who showed up and UNDERSTOOD the magic. I began seeing the glistening silver thread that tied like minded people together. It all seemed like a tiny miracle that through the process of pouring the energy of love into tossed away objects that someone else could FEEL something and want to take that piece home to live with it.  It tickles me that in small corners all around the country my little boxes set there and quietly whisper....  " be yourself...  your beautiful flawed wonderful self... even the parts that you want to toss away offer something of depth to this world " 

I loved and still love watching people find their boxes.  ENJOY!