ArtSocket: These RR (railroad) plates (cast steel plates that are under the rails and fastened with spikes to the wooden ties.) are a revelation to me. I have to admit that after watching you work with them over the past 2 years I've become a bit obsessed with them. When you first introduced them to me I did a little research and found out that they were originally called sleeper pads (the wooden or concrete ties being referred to as sleepers). I love that term! Sleeper pads - it sounds like something the mafia would use to put under a body to keep the [car] trunk clean.

They have so much natural character, it just blows me away that I haven't seen other artists using them as canvases. Tell me about how you discovered them, and the journey that led to this edition.

Paula: When I found a place to live in VT it was next to the tracks ~ I like walking and looking around at the ground ~ I noticed that away from the tracks there was another set of abandoned tracks and a few 'decomposing' plates buried under overgrown weeds. I have no idea what possessed me to pick them up and drag them home but I was drawn to them like a magnet. In retrospect I think it had something to do with having limited funds and wanting to just do something on anything I could get my hands on. I knew I wasn't a painter per se. I knew I wanted to work with something that was unique and open for interpretation. I was attracted to the size and color. They were just small enough that I would not be intimidated ya know?

The journey that led to a clock plate was purely accidental. After I had completed a handful of 'mixed media works' on the plates I showed them to a gallery owner and he insisted no one would want them unless they were wall sculptures, he didn't seem very interested in them one way or the other. I was crestfallen, I loved those pieces but I knew he had a point about them not hanging....so the next thing was to deal with that. I had no tools and no funds to pay someone to fabricate a hanging apparatus so I started weaving thick wire through the spike holes and fashioning my own hanging system.

After making 40 or more plates, having some in a few shows and people buying a few the idea came to me to make sconces out of them. I was getting good feedback from a few artists/store owners; when I mentioned making sconces out of them a designer told me she would put them in her store when they were completed. Easier said than done, I had to bite the bullet and pay someone to weld a housing box on the back, get the electrical paraphernalia and then somehow find the perfect found object to cover the light bulb and not overshadow the plate. The struggle lasted a few months before I realized it just wasn't a good idea. What was I going to do with the sixteen plates with welded brackets on the back? Then it hit me, put a clock there. I had already drilled holes in the center of a few and it just all fell in to place. I find it ironic about the RR Clocks. My earliest memory as a child is of taking apart watches and trying to see how time worked. My grandfather worked for the railroad; And I, never really care what time it is.

ArtSocket: Where do you get the found objects that you use on the plates?

Paula: If I told you, I'd haffta kill you.

ArtSocket: I knew it! Then you'd toss my lifeless body onto the set of sleeper plates lining your trunk!

AS: I've found that artist usually have a love/hate relationship with a medium. What do you hate about working with the plates?

Paula: First of all, I love that question. I don't think I've ever been asked what I hate about something.
hmmmm, right off the bat I hate that my hands get so dried and cut up. I haven't found gloves I like to work with and I need to feel the things I'm working with, I feel removed from it if I'm wearing gloves. The combination of metal/rust and washing my hands too much in hot water, well lets just say if I wanted to I could probably use my own hands as a substitute for sandpaper.
I don't hate anything else about the rr plates but they trigger me at times, they remind me of how much more I want to do and how limited I am sometimes in my knowledge and tools. Overall I love those RR Plates. I can't get enough of them.

ArtSocket: You must love them because I'm surprised that you didn't mention how hard it is to drill holes through them. I know that you've had to use pricey cobalt drill bits and special cutting oil, sometimes changing the bit size 2-3 times to make the main hole for the clock mechanism.

Paula: Well that doesn't make me hate the clocks...its more my lack of good equipment and even that is more a frustration than hatred. And you know what? Mostly I get to learn patience and to love the process. I'm not going to do it if it just sucks the whole way, its just an irritant but its better than working a job I hate for min. wage eh?

ArtSocket: Fair enough. How has working on this edition affected you? Any insight, epiphanies, or changes?

Paula: Funny, I'm taking this interview rather seriously. I've never been interviewed before. I've spent the last 2 years not talking to many people and feeling invisible. Of course I have insights and epiphanies ...changes. But I think I'll keep them to myself for now. These plates have challenged the hell out of me. They are like little jewels. When I was a kid I had a collection of those little cars, Hot Wheels? They were rough and tough and yet beautiful and just plain fun to look at to feel. Different colors and makes/models, but all cars just the same. It was quite satisfying to just line them up and look at them. That's how I feel about my RR Clock Collection. Does that make sense?

ArtSocket: Ha! I did the same thing. Once I got them all carefully parked next to each other, I would put two long pieces of orange plastic track next to each other and have drag races off of a ping-pong table.

I feel that a strong facet of enjoying a series like this is the context and comparison of attributes and character from piece to piece. In some way, to me, it's like walking through a hospital nursery looking over dozens of babies. There is an extended sense of discovery, beyond just studying every little facet of one piece.

What do you enjoy and what are the limits of working on a series like this?

Paula: I hadda just laugh, the whole hospital nursery thing.
What do I enjoy? in this series, it was the finding of the plates and objects , I like getting out and looking for things, makes me feel like I'm a kid ( a friend went on his own search for some objects for me and they fit perfectly, so that was cool to have someone inspired enough to find stuff and donate it). And then its the surprise of what's going to work/fit and the challenge of getting out of my own way and letting things happen. I don't like repeating myself and I like pushing myself. The limits? I dunno. At first it felt like a stretch to make 100 of them, I'm on #41 as we speak and I remember at #18 occasionally asking myself what the hell am I doing? A HUNDRED????? But something happened after around #25, I got on a roll and couldn't work on any other art project, its like the obsessive part of me took over and wouldn't let me do anything else until I at least finished the plates I had that were welded on back , I've never done anything like this so I guess I don't really know what the limits would be. Okay, here's a limit. They are rather small, there is only so much I can do to make a functional piece of art/clock out of them without it becoming some ridiculous thing . . . like the plate would be some horrid useless limb/shell and the rest of the clock starts growing larger and larger off the piece and obliterating the plate completely. Tap me on my shoulder if that starts to happen okay? Unless you have another burning question, I think I'm gonna exit.  Thanks for the interview, good questions and good luck!

ArtSocket: Thank you for subjecting yourself to my questions. I feel lucky that you let me get in as many as I did. I know you have work to do, so I'll let you get to it.