INTERSECTIONS
2002 - present
My love of collecting has expanded over the last few years. Although I collect pristine
old paper, I find myself seeking the damaged...the stuff that ends up in the dumpster after
the estate sale. I buy broken books and build collages from their pieces. Old letters and
photographs, now without family, are given new life. An early 20th Century postcard
with scratches on the surface or broken corners is not “collectable.” If the image is not
rare or unusual, I allow myself to alter it. Steel engravings from the 1800’s, which seem
precious to me, but are stained or torn are put in the remnant bins in antiquarian
bookstores. I have frantically pulled old books from boxes on the streets of New York
just ahead of the trash collectors who were throwing them into the compactor of the
garbage truck.
Many of the bits and pieces of the past that I use in my work will survive longer because
they are now incorporated in art. Without the countless artists, writers, and thinkers who
came before me, and of course the people who saved these pieces of our history, these
collages would not exist. There are currently 50 collages in INTERSECTIONS.