While in graduate school at the University of Kansas in Lawrence in 1982, I made my first trip abroad to Italy, Amsterdam and Paris with the University of Georgia’s Study Abroad Program. Since then travel has been the passion that feeds my work. Wherever I go, I am particularly drawn to the small, casual shrines people create in their homes and yards as well as in their businesses, on roadsides and in public spaces, using religious and domestic objects together in homage to God, living and deceased loved ones or causes they are passionate about. Upon my return from that first trip to Europe, I created Shrines and Sacred Spaces as my main bodies of work in graduate school. Since then, I have continued to create both shrines and sacred spaces in various bodies of work.

Travel also sparked my interest in Milagros. In many Latin American countries, Catholic worshipers attach small metallic objects in the shape of: body parts, people, pets, crops etc. called Milagros (meaning miracles) to statues of patron saints, as offerings for divine intervention in some specific area of their lives. These objects have fascinated me ever since first seeing them in Mexico in 1984. In Catholic churches in Europe similar votive offerings, sometimes called ex-votos, are frequently found encased in cabinets on walls surrounding statues of religious figures. The European votives are usually larger, made of precious metals and more refined in craftsmanship than their Latin American counterparts. Each tradition has its own unique appeal.

Other ritual objects that attract me include: reliquaries, chalices, formal shrines, Stations of the Cross, crosses, grave markers, baptismal and holy water fountains as well as church structures, cemeteries, and sacred spaces. I am fascinated by art historical images and architecture; social, domestic, and religious objects and rituals; anatomical reference books and models; gardens and parks, bodies of water, flowers, trees and birds; games and toys; and Mexican, Italian and Floridian imagery. I respond to these spaces, objects and images because of their mystical and symbolic significance and their inherent beauty.

I have been titling bodies of clay work and drawings, Small Offerings, since 1990 but in hindsight the title seems appropriate for all of my serious work as an artist. The use of the word, “Small” is appropriate because my work is usually intimate in scale and content. Like the votive offerings and shrines I have visited in Europe and Latin America, I create my work as “offerings” addressing people and situations that touch my heart. I see life as an immeasurable, unpredictable gift with loving relationships, spirituality and nature at its core and I create my work in the same spirit of supplication, awe and gratitude I experience when viewing casual shrines, great cathedrals and beautiful gardens around the world.