About
ARTIST BIO
Currently a resident of Chicago, I was born in Communist occupied Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1958, and moved with family to Dallas, Texas in 1969 to an apartment just blocks away from Southern Methodist University. Many years later I attended SMU as “an older than average student” and in 1990 received a BFA with heavy concentration in sculpture and photography. While at SMU, I attended the Yale School of Art Summer Program in Norfolk, Connecticut. Marriage brought me to Chicago where, in 1994, I earned an MFA with focus in sculpture from the University of Chicago.
A full-time artist since 1994, I’ve exhibited extensively at regional museums, art centers, and university galleries throughout the United States. Exhibitions abroad include U.S. Embassies in Moscow, Ankara, and Abuja; National Art Museum of China in Beijing; alternative galleries in London, Rome, Berlin, Jena- Germany, and Veliko Tarnovo- Bulgaria; also Bridges Mathematical Art Exhibitions in Linz, Austria and Stockholm, Sweden. In 2005, I began working with art consulting firms, galleries, and individual clients to create site-specific, private and public commissions.
The road towards my signature process of creating math generated work and crocheting fiberglass really began in 1992 when I started making sculpture that dealt with abstracting narratives of identity. Within this context, an exploration of fiberglass and resin led me to crocheting fiberglass roving. Years later, the same pursuit led me to creating patterns from math sequences and forms anchored in grid and Pascal’s Triangle.
In 2011, I began exploring new systems of mapping sequences, anchored in drawing with various media such as graphite, markers, acrylic, gouache, and encaustic paints on panel and variety of papers. These 2D works range from simple notations as graph plots to complex layered patterns that visualize hundreds of digits.
In 2016 I was introduced to a laser-cutter and began a new material obsession, exploring systems while building wall-based work using laser-cut acrylic sheets separated by vinyl spacers. This new workspace, a new iPhone, and increased city driving resulted in hundreds of snapshots which led to another new body of work that combines digital prints on transparency film with laser-cut acrylic.
I spent over 20 years creating large works, based on identity narratives, by crocheting fiberglass that was formed by adding polyester resin, a labor-intensive process that engaged my hands at every stage. Driven purely by the math and created almost entirely with the use of digital technology, the laser-cut work almost completely removed my hand and the sense of my hand from the work. I need to now explore different ways to directly engage the material with my hands and bring some form of humanness back into the work.
During COVID-19 closures, with no access to a laser cutter, I started working the acrylic with hand tools, combining acrylic sheet scraps left over from the laser-cut work, at first with paper gift bags, later with industrial felt, and incorporating traditional embroidery stitches using a variety of yarns and threads. This work is open to engage graphite or other traditional drawing materials and is expanding the transparent/translucent language by adding tinted clear vinyl and organza.