Can you tell us a bit about your background and how you became interested in becoming an artist?
I grew up surrounded by makers- my father was a carpenter, my mother a jeweler and there were people in my extended family and larger community too who taught me how to throw pots, sew, weld, make stained-glass, etc. There were tools and materials all around me and that’s what we did in our free time- my brother would make boats and see if they were seaworthy and I was usually painting or making clothing. By the time I finished high school though, the experience of watching both my parents struggle to make a living scared me into a more practical path. I made a conscious and difficult decision not to go to art school and instead went to Smith College where I ended up studying Economics because I wanted to know about the systems that birthed inequality. I took a few art classes but I was really focused on doing something ‘useful’. Following college, I worked for ten years supporting research on economic and health inequalities in the developing world. By my early 30s a series of difficult life events left me struggling emotionally and in 2012, I left my paid job, intending to take a break and recalibrate. I took up painting again, which I had mostly abandoned since college, and found myself unable to put it back down. So, in some sense I think I’ve mostly fought against being an artist. But making things has always been what I love doing and, for the past 10+ years, I have finally been embracing that.
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Read the full interivew at maakemagazine.com
