ABOUT THE ARTIST

For many years monotypes have been my medium of choice. I enjoy the dialogue I have with the press and the process it entails. My work and aesthetics derive in large part from my heritage — North African — and my formative cultural experience growing up in Italy.

I begin my prints by traveling into memory and imagination. I am interested in boundries and transitions. Both physical and cultural. How close can you get? What happens when you get near? I try to create seemingly diverse realms and patterns that can coexist in one space. The visual language is primordial, melodic and industrial. I will use Arabic callilgraphy, architecture and organic drawings —not necessarily to say something specific — but for how these forms represent power, history and sensation and how they connect with one another.

While I want my work to look simple and dramatic, at the same time I am interested in subtleties. What may not be visible at first gets revealed upon a closer look. Things are not always as they appear to be.

I use drawings on paper, transfers, rubbings repitition of patterns and other mark-making tools to build a progression of layered ideas. With each run through the press, as layers change and become more complex, history and memory become part of the conversation.

 

Member of California Society of Printmakers