Before becoming a full-time artist, I was a librarian at The Chicago Public Library for 25 years serving children and young adults in neighborhoods throughout Chicago. In addition, I have provided library services to women in the Cook County Jail.

I attribute my obsession for working with found materials and making do with what we already have to my childhood spent accompanying my father who owned, operated and repaired pinball machines, jukeboxes and vending machines in bowling alleys, funky rent parties in garages, and taverns throughout Chicago. The people my father served, laughed and talked with were people of color. The very fact that I traveled with him to these places as often as I could made my seemingly normal childhood anything but normal.

I lost my husband of 25 years in a violent motorcycle accident and began making art as part of my grieving process. My husband, Fred Dech, would surely be amused to see how I was working with found blown-out tires and now X-rays as a photographic material as it echoed our shared longing for the unusual, which we pursued throughout our lives together.

I have discovered that found or repurposed imagery, objects and materials carry powerful associations, nuanced messages and multiple meanings. Of course, in some of the work I create some of the story will be apparent. In others the story will not be evident. Viewers will have the chance to allow their imagination take over in vividly emotional ways.

Awards

A photograph from Two Lanes was selected for Life {Unscripted's} Weekly Top Ten, Theme Visual Narrative for the week of July 19, 2016.

Freeman was the MCA Inspired winner for March 2016.