My Website: www.fragileindustries.com

Fragile Industries Studios offers unique artwork that combines assemblage with altered art in mixed media. I specialize in altered books, sculptural shrines, altars and other devotional objects, and a broad variety of works in paper. My works are frequently given as gifts or used for weddings and other special occasions.

Check out my photos here in my Tribe album (link under photo to left) for examples of recent works in altered books and shrines.

I call my work "participatory art" because it involves its audience in a variety of ways. Doors open, pages turn, revealing itself anew with your participation. Take a look at my "SHOP" page for altered art and assemblage works for sale. A special "Wedding Store" is on my "SHOP" page showing past commissions and, in the future, "ready-to-go" items.

I especially enjoy creating customized works to your specifications and themes, including your own photographs and other ephemera, whether for personal enjoyment or use as accessories or memory pieces for weddings and other special occasions. This is another participatory aspect of the art. My clients are delighted with their personalized altered books and shrines. They may commemorate a special occasion, such as a birthday or wedding, or memorialize aspirations, a departed loved one, or celebrate any icon of special meaning to you. For past commissioned pieces, check out my "GALLERY" pages of custom shrines, and personalized altered books.

Also available are works mostly in mixed media on paper. You may include them as accents or focal points in your own altered art, scrapbooking or collage. In this way too, I invite your participation. I also create custom greeting cards, invitations and stationery for weddings and other special occasions. These items may be seen in both my "SHOP" and "GALLERY" pages.

I look forward to hearing from you with comments and queries about any of my work. You may reach me through my "CONTACT" page.

About Me:

I am a self-taught artist living in Ventura, California. I am also an appellate attorney and an award-winning poet. My mixed-media sculpture has toured nationally and my shrines, altered books and other assemblages are widely collected.

I have been creating altered and assemblage art all my life: sculptures, collage, altered furniture, greeting cards and stationery, and hand-bound books of poetry and collage.

I seldom work with new, manufactured materials. I prefer objects with meaning: vintage pieces, found objects, and the discards of others.

In 2001, I started my own studio to experiment with mixed media works in paper and collage. From the start, I found my greatest joy in creating art for others. I work best when I have the recipient in mind as I worked on the piece, so that I can include personal and unique touches.

I discovered altered books in 2003, for my own pleasure and for gifts. Some have been used as custom scrapbooks to be filled in by the recipient, some memorialize special occasions, particularly weddings and birthdays, and some are stand-alone art pieces. For the last three years, I have created shrines, altars, and other devotional art pieces.

I call my art "participatory" because all my pieces turn passive viewers into active participants in the work. They pick up the piece, feel the texture, open drawers, turn pages, manipulate all the moving parts in a sensory and dynamic experience. I invite your participation in the design of custom art, in its theme, in its very elements, so that it includes objects of significance to you. Also, I create other works for you to use as you wish with your own creations -- altered art and scrapbook embellishments, artist trading cards, collage, and other fun tidbits. In these ways, an intimate relationship develops between you and the
finished piece.

My purpose is one of revelation. First, my work is detailed and complex, so that something new is revealed with every viewing. Second, I strive for my pieces to be greater than the sum of their parts, for the combinations to reveal a rhythm and higher meaning. Finally, especially with my devotional objects, I seek to reveal to the viewer his or her own dreams, memories, and aspirations.

I hope you enjoy my work as much as I enjoy creating it.