Artist Diary

• Date: December 18, 2023

I became interested in working with blown out tires when I was driving on the thruway early in the morning on my way to teach a workshop. I was taking an art course and my assignment was to use 2 materials I never worked with and share the results. I was wracking my brain trying to come up with something when I saw a shredded, blown out tire on the side of the road. The next thing I knew I was standing over the tire and staring. The form was explosive and captured a highly charged moment in time. Everything about it felt authentic, untamed and kinetic. I realized that I had a connection with it. How many times had I stared at these images while traveling long highways? My creativity was ignited and I was excited as I carried this treasure to my car. I knew my journey was expanding and that a new dance was about to begin.

• Date: December 14, 2023

Stones and rocks are one of my favorite visual metaphors. Stones can be round and sensual, but are often hard unrelenting objects that can become weapons. An unfortunate truth is that women are all too familiar with the brutal punishment of stoning both physically and figuratively. Stones can be burdens to carry or they can stabilize and support. As a metaphor they are filled with ambiguities and have a richness of meaning that is a perfect fit for my work.

• Date: December 11, 2023

When I transitioned from girl to woman I felt like I was free falling alone! I tried desperately to hide my feelings and regain my footing. Leaving childhood and becoming a woman is a trying time for many. But I now know I wasn’t alone and the chaos allowed me to throw all the blocks in the air and create my own foundation.

• Date: December 6, 2023

Water is part of my creative iconography. It’s complex, alluring and chock full of metaphors. Water envelops, massages, invigorates. Its depth beckons us to dive in. It presents as clear and transparent and yet can become as impenetrable as the midnight sky. It mesmerizes as it races off 100 foot cliffs and dances with the moon curling into and away from the shore. Water is ubiquitous and can be taken for granted and treated with disregard, but without Water we would all quickly perish!

• Date: November 22, 2023

As a psychotherapist and artist. My practice, as well as my life experiences have provided me with a profound realization: far too many women have little to no sense of their innate value. The honor and power of the feminine is the thrust of my creative journey. My art reclaims, unburies, and honors the feminine.

• Date: November 17, 2023

As a young girl I dreamed of being an Artist, It was evident that this was a position held only by men. So I made a plan that when I grew up I would use my last name, “Tobias”, as my art signature. I figured I could pass as a man by wearing a suit and hat if I had to have pictures taken. Today, in honor of that little girl and her tenacious mom, “Tobias” will be my art signature.