Artist's Statement: I am continuously moved by the power of imagery to evoke, stir-up, even churn. I have always been drawn to the figure, yet have discovered that it is what is figurative that inspires me. The figurative or what I call the "humanness" can be found in and evoked by images that are not human at all. These things share qualities with us, as they grow, give life, seed and decay. At times, the humanness is found in the narratives or myths we assign to the forms in a painting, thus making such objects beings. At other times, it is something felt in the gut, a visceral response to the image or to the paint itself. Humanness is present in the stature and grace of text and in imagining the history and voice of its speaker. Much of my work explores these bodily and emotional experiences through other forms. Earlier work, much of which also involves the figure, explores the coexistence and relationship between the human form and linear structure. While painting, I made up stories about my models, glorified them at times, wondered how they may or may not be like me. Adding the structure acted as both scaffolding, and as a way to compartmentalize. This structure seemed necessary, reflecting a need for support or external applications, without which many women feel they cannot stand. It is also what props up a larger-than-life woman (a la Trojan Horse) before she is completed. This work addresses a tendency many of us have, to segment or "box" our experiences, or to feel we need external support rather than find it within. In my memorial pieces for the World Trade Center disaster, there are again parallels between the human and non-human, the figurative and the linear structure. Yet here, and maybe appropriate the reality of the disaster, what is human cannot ever be separated. In these paintings, the remains of the towers suggest bones. The text, which comes from the timely High Holiday prayers, floats above as ghostly presence, and tries to give structure where structure was lost. The words, read year after year, reference dust. These paintings are part of my healing, my need to acknowledge, my tribute to lives and life as we knew it now gone. So, I ask you, viewer, to step up, make a story, get a feeling that you might not have words for. Find what is mighty, shamed, honored, connected, isolated, graceful, clumsy, flawed, ideal, ripe, dissected, whole, statuesque, slumped, complete, decayed, potent and alive in you.