My artistic style originates with illuminated manuscripts, which have been my first love for many years.  Combining text with detailed, exquisitely rendered miniature border designs, patterns and illustrations has given rise to my painting style.  My paintings are often laid out like an illustrated page of a book, with a central image surrounded by a narrative border.  Over time, the borders have invaded the “main” image, and pattern and narrative have become intertwined and inextricable.

The Owing Project, my current gallery installation, invites art viewers to become participants in a dialogue about the personal, spiritual and societal issues around debt and owing.  I envisioned the gallery space to be a three-dimensional illuminated manuscript:  complete with figures, text and border design.

The interactive element extends beyond the gallery. I collected electronic responses from Facebook and hand-written surveys from participants at a synagogue retreat. I painted a mural at the Chicago Fringe Artists’ Networking Night at Red Tape Theatre in February, 2010 and inscribed it with the words of my portrait subjects as they spoke about what debt means to them.

The urgency I feel to interview people and record their thoughts and narratives owes much to the Ketubah, a folk art form of decorated Jewish marriage contract which has been my mainstay as an artist since late childhood.