Terracotta, mixed media

17” x 17” x 19”

2020

This piece explores vulnerability of women in their careers, in the movie industry and beyond. Marred by the silver screen promises and abuses, many women linger in the twisting agony of keeping a secret. The clock ticking, time running out to tell the story, or risk dwindling credibility. Years of simmering psychological injury turn into boiling anger that eventually uncoils like a runaway film reel. When the victims speak out—one after another, after another, after another—their individual stories create a vivid narrative, like an unspooling film: Each image is slightly different story, together progressing to document a powerful account of their experiences.

Terracotta, mixed media

19” x 23” x 7”

2020

Stoic, gritty, persistent—she will rise to face a challenge and pull through with quiet determination, power and tenacity, by her bootstraps if needed.

This piece, together with the “Casting Couch” and “Incandescent” is a triptych, representing a triad of states that some women face in their lives: a victim who has courage to speak up (“Casting Couch”), a survivor who pulls through (“By her bootstraps”), and a victor and commander of life’s circumstances (“Incandescent”).

Terracotta

15” x 13” x 13”

2020

Brimming with confidence, a woman comfortable in her own skin, incandescent with self worth, power, and the freedom to display it. She commands attention and respect. Like a piratess she has hijacked her own destiny, commandeered life’s circumstances to forge her own path skillfully, with the confidence of a masterful commander, whether using wisdom, guile, or both. She has conquered the insecurities and anxieties of her youth, and liberated herself from the uncertainties about future and fears of being deceived. She is comfortable with where she is—looking outward, saturated with life, incandescent.

Terracotta, mixed media

16” x 9” x 15”

2020

The flood of information drowns you – news, social media, and endless streaming of digital TV. It’s easily accessible, personalized to your taste, and completely irresistible. Its goal is to monetize your attention, and it has already hijacked nearly all of your free time. You struggle to keep up or carve out private space. The writhing pose and the defiant look suggest that you are not yet ready to drown complacently in this flood. Yet the arms are missing, symbolizing constrains to your escape, to the point of hopelessness. Is the willpower a life preserver enough to save you from drowning? The red and white valve wheel looks like a life preserver, but on closer inspection it is more like a horse-collar meant to weigh you down and reign you in—into the torrent of digital content. The valve seems to have only one option – to ‘open’→ – but can it close to switch off the flood?

Terracotta

20” x 25” x 20”

2020

Is she emerging or trying to hide? "Carved" is work in progress, literally and figuratively. Unfinished, chisel marks visible, freeing herself from stone roughness, twisting, and morphing into a softer shape. Or is she trying to cover up, recede into the stone, shield herself and protect exposed vulnerability? The answer is not set in stone.

Terracotta

15” x 9” x 11”

2019

Inward looking, drifting away in her thoughts to a place of calm—a female manifestation of the Buddha’s teachings

7” x 26” x 8”

2020

Freshly baked, gleaming buttery crust—Bulochka is an epitome of an indulgent Sunday morning, with latte, and croissants served straight out of the oven.

Terracotta, mixed media

20” x 15” x 9”

2018

“Are we there yet?” is a journey of endurance: grinding teeth, grinding gears, grinding raw to the bone; sinking, exhausted, with no end in sight—dealing with a loss, a hardship, a failure, addiction, or treatment. What moves us forward when we have exhausted our physical strength?

Terracotta, bronze paint, bone

15” x 14” x 9”

2018

Who is attacking? Are we shooing away the danger about to spring up into action or are we being shooed, and that’s us stumbled on the ground, helpless, frightened? Fear is such a primal emotion it binds us to our animal origins, cutting through millennia of evolution and everything that makes us human and civilized. The bone element represents that—when we are helpless (no arms), frightened, fallen, something primal, animalistic wakes up to carry us through a tough time, like the crutch of a survival instinct.

Today Shoo! represents the world in a global pandemic—filled with fear, attempts to shoo the invisible enemy away, feelings of helplessness combined with innate believe that somehow, eventually, we will get through this.

Terracotta, bronze paint.

21” x 11” x 7”

2018

Terracotta, bronze paint

20” x 9” x 10”

2018

Terracotta, acrylic paint, wood

25” x 23” x 23”

2017

"Lilly Expecting; a boy or a girl?" portrays Lilly, when she was pregnant with her first child.  Over the weeks in the studio, Lilly's physical appearance gradually changed, as did her inner world -- week by week, blossoming into a new version of herself.  I tried to capture this metamorphosis in a portrait, focusing on her emotional, rather than physical, changes.  The clay allowed me to explore the pliability of Lilly's different moods. From different angles this portrait reflects her youthful giddiness and excitement, her sense of expectancy, and her serenity about upcoming motherhood.  At one moment, an evolving sense of calm and security would spread over her body; in the next, it would be overcome with the question she could not help but ask again and again—will she have a boy or a girl? Lilly and her husband chose not to know the baby's gender before the birth.  Over the weeks in the studio, bursting with anticipation and excitement Lilly tried to peek into the future, imagining what it would feel like to raise a boy or a girl.  The portrait explores Lilly's intimate world, the enigma of fundamental changes happening in a woman's body and to her identity as she blossoms into motherhood, while inviting us, too, to peek into her future.

Terracotta, acrylic paint

19" x 9" x 15"

2016

Terracotta, bronze paint, patina

15" x 15" x 15"

2017

Terracotta, acrylic paint 

14” x 14” x 7”

2018

Terracotta, acrylic paint, wood

17” x 9” x 13”

2017

As a lawyer working on international programs that promote the rule of law abroad, I help design and implement legal-assistance programs to prevent human rights abuses and prosecute and prevent human trafficking. We provide legal assistance to some of the world’s most vulnerable. Some of these anti-trafficking programs have focused specifically on the victims of sex and labor trafficking, providing legal and psychological assistance to victims, helping to overcome stigma, working with victims to testify to bring perpetrators to justice, and representing victims in court for restitution.

"The Aftermath" represents the survivors. Shell-shocked, bleeding from physical and emotional wounds, exposed, damaged, weary. But survivors nonetheless. The blanket over the shoulders says that the worst is over; someone has stepped in to provide protection and a degree of comfort.

Terracotta, gilded copper

10” x 13” x 9”

2017

Terracotta, bronze paint

10" x 11" x 11"

2018

Terracotta, bronze paint, patina

19" x 9" x 9"

2015

Terracotta, bronze paint, patina

6" x 31" x 8"

2016

Snap!  Tension to the breaking point…  In the “Tension,” a human body, outstretched in a straight line—a tightly wound string, pulling, pushing, and resisting on both ends—battles conflicting emotions of anxiety, loss, desire, existential angst, private moments of panic, loneliness, anticipation.  It is internal tension stretched to the breaking point.

Plastilina

27” x 9” x 9”

in progress