Biography

I come from a line of feminists, four generations of belief in women; I feel like it is in my blood and it was exhilarating to come of age during the second wave of feminism.

At college I majored in art, receiving a B.F.A. from Cornell. As a printmaking major I was working in a studio next door to a small letterpress shop and became entranced with the world of books. I created artists’ books and became a mistress letterpress printer.

Space exploration has captured my imagination since childhood, so I was excited when asked to join the NASA Art Program on Space Shuttle; I made several trips to launches and exhibited work at Cape Kennedy. Later I was celebrated as one of the women artists who participated in the NASA Art Program in an exhibition at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

A spell in California for a M.F.A. in typography and book making started a career in book design and art directing for twenty-five years in New York City. This work supported my feminist art that did not sell like hot cakes.

In New York I exhibited in many of the alternative spaces flourishing at the time (Franklin Furnace, La MaMa, Broadway Windows) as well as at the Ceres Gallery. Also during this period I was on the board of the Women’s Caucus for Art, participated in a group out of Chicago (SisterSerpents), was a member of a women’s drumming group (The Mob of Angels), and published work in contemporary feminist magazines of that time (‘Women of Power,’ ‘Iris,’ ‘Kalliope’).

A retrospective in Barcelona was a culmination of many years of work, an exhilarating experience. The Spanish audience was very responsive, particularly to my work dealing with death and gender.

I moved to North Carolina after my mother died, and came back to the south where I was from but had never lived. Here I continue my own journey towards death, and to make art on that path.