Artist Statement

Mosaic first caught my attention while on vacation in Seattle in 1986. I walked into a gallery and on display was a "Falls" style dressing table fully adorned with broken dishes, including a broken Marilyn Monroe plate in the center and elegant porcelain figures as drawer pulls. I found myself completely taken by the work and the idea of creating something new out of common place materials such as dishes. I later learned that the technical name for this type of mosaic is "picasiette," a folk art tradition with a long and rich history. Picasiette is a French word first associated with Raymond Isidore and La Maison Picassiette of Chartres, northern France, that loosely translates to "crazy plate stealer," but in modern context speaks more of the use of broken pottery. In my work I use almost exclusively the ceramic of broken dishes to adorn and reclaim discarded objects. My signature is to maintain some semblance of dish by use of pattern, shape or recognizable parts - handles, spouts, rims and bottoms - in a revitalized form different from its original use. I embrace the challenge of creating a new, spectacular and meaningful work of art out of the obsolete and mundane. I created my first piece in Seattle and have been doing so ever since.