访谈录 2008-09-12&09-13 肚腩艺术（在线收听）

I just was always one of those people who wished that I had something from my great, great grandmother, whether it be a brooch or just a note, just something from her. So I wanted to create something that my kids would be able to have from me and something very personal.

No bellies are, are the same, first of all to work on a three-dimensional canvas as opposed to a two-dimensional flat canvas or wood. This makes it much more interesting, gives you a challenge as well as the interest of working with different media.

The responses have been positive, um, remarkably positive. Women over the past few years have been taking pride in being pregnant, um, you see it everywhere.  Four years ago, women were, they were wearing tent dresses, and hiding and you know they were ashamed or just… It wasn’t a pleasant experience for them, and that was the society had dictated at that time. But we are living in a different age, in a different time, and women are just proud to show the world that they are pregnant.

It’s very different, you don’t usually see people, usually to have photographs but now you actually get a visual, a 3D image of your actual belly. This is an expression of you, yet, it’s memorable, it’s something, it’s a keepsake item.

I have lots and lots of memories, memoirs, and stuff like, the kids, that I am constantly showing them now. So something like this for a lifetime to share with my daughter right now would be something so unique.

My all-time favor is the pineapple, this one particular customer of ours, she created pineapple through  whole pregnancy and she wanted her belly to like a pineapple.

It was just a matter of time to figure out how to make it look like the actual pineapple, which was for me pretty easy because of the rounded shape of the belly, which is , it's, you know, kind of a round shape of the fruit.

Ultimately, it’s a blank canvas, and so the possibilities are endless. We have some bellies that look like bathing suits, we have some bellies that have morphed into other things like butterflies, and ladybugs, and you know fairies, and ballerinas. We got angels. The possibilities are endless.

For me, it’s art, art is art, so no matter what I am doing, whether it’s print making or photography or painting, it’s still my artistic experience that I can have, that I’ve built up over these past, over 30 years. So you’re still getting an original piece of artwork whether it’s on the belly or on the canvas.