-What and who has inspired you the most in your artistic career?

I studied visual arts in Cordoba, Argentina, then at Kutztown University where I was involved in performance art and installation. While in Argentina I was influenced by my boyfriend who was a huge film & music fan. We saw tons of European films and listened to everything from American Jazz, to Folkloric to Astor Piazzola. In Buenos Aires we saw a fashion show that was held in the second story windows as we watched from the street. I was captivated. Later when I was living in Atlanta I ran a funky old hotel called Le Pavilion. I created a series of drawing about the place and had a one woman art show. But the people were missing so I created Le Pavilion in the gallery windows and co-wrote with David Lee three scenes – A Murder, A Love Scene, and My Office. The action all happened simultaneously to New Tango by Astor Piazzola. It was very filmic and I had an ephipany – I wanted to make on-site performances that stirred strong emotions in the viewers. This led to video and then to making my first feature Out of State-A Gothic Romance.

-Every true artist is also a revolutionary against power. Do you think there is still room today to express one’s revolution through art?

Art is very powerful against tyrants, despots and charlatans who want to control people. That is why unenlightened people who are brutal dictators try to eliminate artists who speak out, write, draw, make music, films and documentaries. Think of that famous scene in “Casablanca” when the occupying German officers are singing a Third Reich song. In defiance the whole club stands to sing “Le Marsaillaise” the French National anthem. 

-We live in a world where, unfortunately, war still exists. Do you believe that if there were more dissemination of art through the media and social networks, the world would be a more peaceful place?

It is unfortunate that war is still with us. Art, music, film, dance etc. are all very important in bridging the divide in the world. There was an amazing musical on Broadway a few years back call  The Band’s Visit. It was based on an Israel film about an Alexandrea, Egypt  band that gets stuck in Israel and makes friends with Israelis who befriend them and offer to help them out of a tight spot. It a very powerful statement of breaking down stereotypical images of someone who is from another culture and seeing the humanity it all. If it were only so simple.

-Are you working on a new project? If so, can you give us a sneak peek?

I want to adapt “The Gas Station Project”  that I wrote for a feature film. The play was conceived while in an actors/writers workshop with the cast of CBS’s Soap Opera “The Guilding Light.” Set in a small town in Florida in 1999, Tammy & Chet, a 30-soemthing couple, run a gas station/automotive center. Their crumbling marriage is told through their eyes, their children and their best friends. The conceit is that two actors play the roles with a narrator who sits in a bright red convertible leading the audience through the 16 different scene setups including their home, a juice bar, a television studio, a bar in Daytona, and an emergency room. We staged a reading in OverSeas Auto Body Shop in Hastings on Hudson and my goal was to translate the play into 7 languages and work with international theater groups to stage it in car related places in their town. Naturally, for the film version the idea of two actors playing all roles is not possible. Hoping to raise funds to make this one happen. With cars as metaphor all the world is a showroom. This film is gassed up and ready to go. As you can tell I love cars.