Collage is a new medium for me, as is living near Providence. I am an alumni of Roger Williams University and moved back to Rhode Island from Upstate, NY last year. Since then, the dissonance of new and old, light and dark within the city has significantly shaped my work.
I created the majority of these “butterfly people” in the pandemic isolation of winter for the same reason many people create art, I suppose, – as a form of catharsis and sense-making. Each person or being is a part of my internal world – a reflection of the external – passer-bys on the street, people spotted through bar windows, socialites at events... Making some of these quirky creatures was and is a way for me to express certain emotions or emotive concepts – attachment, memory, bravery, regret, hope – and some were made just because I wanted them to be.
My photographic work, like my collages, is also an emotive expression, and does often have a dark-edge – though I find light to be just as captivating, since both need one another to exist.
