Selected Portfolio

My Work: Mobiles, Bead Hangings, Sculptures

Here’s a selection of my work produced since 2014. I use a wide variety of media, primarily relying on found and donated materials (as in “Nova, here’s a baggie full of my old unused jewelry, one-off earrings, and so on”). Please note: Covid Juggler is being offered as a fundraiser for our essential farm workers here in Ventura County who are especially impacted by Covid. Thank you! If you see something you like, please contact me at NovaClite.artist@gmail.com!

Disentanglement, 2016

ceramic, wire, beads
10 x 21 in (25 x 54 cm) $350

Covid Juggler, 2020

Found materials, wire, beads

13 x 38 in (33 x 98 cm), $450

Covid Juggler – close up

Found materials, wire, beads.
Photographs by Harper Point Photography, Ventura www.harperpoint.com

Fire in the Canyon, 2016

Drift wood, glass beads
17 x 41 in (43 x 104 cm) $350
A prescient piece completed one month before the Thomas Fire scorched Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

Disruption, 2020

Drift wood, glass & hematite beads
24 x 52 in (61 x 132 cm) $2,500

Mo’s Piece, 2017

Commission (private collection)
28 x 46 in (71 x 117 cm)

Pointless Barbwire

Found/repurposed materials, 2019
12 x 31 in (30 x 80 cm) $175

Green Energy Goddess

Ceramic sculpture, reclaimed wire, beads
5 x 12 in (13 x 31 cm) (in private collection)

Stepping Off

Found materials, 2019
17 in (43 cm) diameter, $350 3rd Place winner. 10/2019 Ventura County Arts Council show. Judge’s comment: “This piece is both elegant and restrained at the same time – exquisite in its simplicity. Using only two found ‘masculine’ industrial discards, the artist has successfully represented the ‘feminine’ contained by the circle – a symbol of the goddess, the indirect, Mother Earth…And yet in its minimalism this sculptural drawing is not static as the circle is dynamically misshapen and the figure gracefully ‘steps off’ of it
into our space.”

…and the point is?

Found objects, glass beads, crystal
(in private collection)

Clostridium tetani (Tetanus) 2019

Found/repurposed materials, beads
8 x 40 in (20 x 102 cm) $175 Rusty nails! What did your mother tell you?
So I thought while composing this piece. Includes carved bone and seed beads, and yes, a skull…

Shinto Gate – Rain on Lake (2019)

Glass and labradorite beads, redwood branch
14 x 36″ ( 36 x 91 cm) (in private collection) Beautiful clear faceted beads rain down from dark clouds, splashing into a sparkling lake. Suspended from a branch recovered from a local redwood tree burned in the Thomas Fire, the piece offers a
Shinto Gate to tranquility.

Drinking, smashing bottles, and drunk driving is a long-standing tradition in Grant Park, a favorite local gathering place in the hills above Ventura’s downtown. As I regularly walk In Grant Park, it’s hard not to see the discarded beer cans, broken bottles, and tell tale signs of accidents. I began collecting broken glass and car wreck debris from the Park as a cleanup action, but was inspired to create this art work to express my feelings and explore the act and aftermath of: DrinkSmashDriveCrash.

Hung from a car fender I recovered from an accident scene, DrinkSmashDriveCrash is a large mobile (3′ x 5′) comprising found materials, wire, small carved skulls, and painted polymer clay objects. The individual sculptural elements symbolize the sacred and profane aspects of the unmoored rituals of drinking, smashing bottles, and driving recklessly.

I debuted DSDC in August 2016 at H Gallery & Studios with poetry, a slideshow, and an audience-participation story about “The End of Broken Glass”.

DrinkSmashDriveCrash

3 Zen Mobiles

Inspired by the Japanese philosophy Wabi Sabi,
3 Zen mobiles are painted on recycled promotional cards, incorporate found and repurposed materials like broken glass, dried branches from local shrubs, and small beads.

16 x 26 in; $35 each or 3 for $75