early works

1985-1989

‘I suppose I come from mixed heritage. My dad (1927-1983) was a Brooklyn Jew whose grandparents had left Belarus with their children at the turn of the century, like many others fleeing the pogroms. My mother was brought up as a Catholic is south Germany in a village 10 miles south of Ulm. She was born in 1935 and can still clearly remember Jews being persecuted, the personal hatred that was inflicted upon them and their removal from her village. I was brought up from the age of 7 primarily by my father and when he passed away in 1983, I was 20 years old and just finding my place in the world. This was the time where I started looking at where I came from, my family heritage, and reading up a lot on the associated history, politics and culture. Where my family histories meet informed the choices I made on the direction that my artwork took and for a time it became very focused on the Holocaust. It’s a subject that draws you in.

I am aware that the Holocaust is a difficult subject and have had mixed reactions to my work in the past, mostly positive but not all, but that’s fine.’