artist statement

Much of my mature work has involved looking into the theme of immigration as the quintessential odyssey.  Most of us are either immigrants or progeny of immigrants.  When we remember this, it puts us in touch with the realities of the labor, suffering and dreams of those who journeyed here with the hope of a new and different kind of life.

In my work, the immigrant journey becomes the metaphor for the entire human journey.  The presence of two languages and two cultures in my home of origin awakened early an appreciation of duality – in the unique aspect of standing in two worlds at the same time.

This life research led me to create a major multi-media exhibit for the Ellis Island Immigration Museum entitled Life line – Filo della Vita: An Italian American Odyssey which explored a century of Italian immigration.  It eventually became a bi-lingual book published by Fordham Press.

The Invisible Odysseys project with Mexican migrant workers in Vermont is an extension of this research into the meaning of migration.  Subsequent exhibits kept exploring this theme, and eventually evolved into works that encompassed explorations into the nature of what it means to be human

My art has evolved from its origins in carved forms and public sculpture, to complex installations involving text, ancestral artifacts, alternative photo processes, stone, fabric, and the found object transformed. The installations and assemblages often appear to be meditations on the layered nature of existence. They are sculptural ruminations, which bridge the past and the present.

     The current series, Street Calligraphies, incorporates found gloves that have been cold cast in bronze which still evoke the mysterious presence of the lost owner. Although the gloves always retain their original gesture, they are combined with other enigmatic elements from city streets and transformed through the artistic process into works of art. Each glove has its own unique history and nature but becomes part of the whole which creates our intertwined life on this planet.

My newest book, Journeys on the Wheel, published by Bordighera Press in New York, gathers together poems which encompass my experiences in an Italian American family, and larger questions posed by our increasingly complex life situations.  In my life, I would say that many of my instinctive responses come from my Italian heritage, tempered by a longtime Zen meditation practice.  The combination creates a balance, both in my life and my work.

Work shown: Glove Globe, Chelsea Creek Clipper at Condor Street Urban Wild, Tony and Nina Triptych, In the Hands of Fate, Gateway I at Coppersmith Village, Life line – filo della vita exhibit at Ellis Island