Biography

At 28 and a half I decided I was an artist.

A mostly conceptual artist, but an artist none the less. It isn’t possible that someone as neurotic as me can’t be. I am secretly an obsessive compulsive, with a knack for over thinking every situation.

Math, reading and writing were never my fortes in school. I grew up in a suburban dismal city in Ontario, Canada called Brampton. My parents Giovanna and Cesare are Italian immigrants, that moved to Canada with their families, and then started their own, consisting of me, my older sister nd brother and my younger sister. With this many people in the family, it was hard for them to help me do my homework especially subjects that required an advanced understanding of English. But I managed.

At some point in highschool I started to paint. Usually really awful copies of photographs of my younger sister, but it was enough to eventually get me a scholarship to The University of Toronto.Just studying art, however, was a terrifying thought, so I studied Arts Management, which is what you study in Toronto when you are too afraid to become an artist. Basically it was a 6 year long program devoted 50% to management and the economy of the non profit sector, including marketing and promotions and the other 50% was visual art classes. Although my arts training was not focused by any means, I had the great fortune of studying painting with Janis Hoogstraten, Don Holman and Shirley Wiitasalo and performance and video art with Tanya Mars.

As a Performance Artist I founded FEMDEA with Artist Erika Defreitas in 2001. A feminist collaboration examining issues of identity and communication with a series of public interactions.

The problem with studying visual and performance art and then continuing to work as a “normal” person in the world of commerce and trade, is that you are much less reserved, much more neurotic and you find it extremely difficult getting to work on time.As an artist I have exhibited several times and also passed up several opportunities. My various life experience including breast augmentation, carbon monoxide poisoning, substance abuse, bulimia, anorexia, marriage, divorce and the eventual move to Italy to dance the Tarantella and be with my Italian lover have significantly contributed to my work.

Most recently I designed a Collection of Women’s belts for the brand TES, based out of Italy and exhibited in Milan at the WHITE Fashion Fair.All and all I continue to think too much about issues of survival, self control, self damage, motherhood, purpose, blindness, longevity and legacy.

These standard themes manifesting themselves in songs, haikus, works on t-shirts, paintings, videos and designs.Current projects include a new band, a series of haikus on leather, a instructional website teaching the Tarantella, a series of poetry based prints and writings.