“The desk belonged to my father. As a little girl it seemed so big and powerful to me. I remember once creeping up to him and asking him how to draw a horse and so he drew a picture of horse and then gave it back to me.”
The Studio…

FYD: I had an imaginary friend, Tiki, the elephant who hung out behind my grandmother’s old trunk. What was your childhood like?
MW: I grew up in Connecticut till I was ten and spent a great deal of time out in the woods imagining all kinds of things. I like your elephant friend. I think children in the past had less to do, more free time, less media, so there was space for more imagination. I worry about my daughter in this respect.
FYD: Did you dream?
MW: I remember as a kid not knowing if the dreams were real or imagined. I once went looking in a field for a pilot that I swear I saw parachute from a burning plane. It must have been a dream. It’s funny when your younger and dreams blend with reality. That’s why I like making films. They are like controlled dreams. We were poor as a child so we got only four or five records a year, musicals or classical. It inspired me to make limited edition collaged LPs and CDs of my music. I wanted people to feel that same special feeling I had holding a record. Like it was very rare and special.
He said it was the greatest thing a person could do, was to live a life of creativity.
FYD: What music did you listen to; say early childhood through teen years?
MW: My teenage years were immersed in music, that’s all I lived for. Concerts and records. I was into theatrical rock and progressive rock. Big stage shows. Bowie, King Crimson, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Sabbath you name it, I saw it.
FYD: How did your Sonic Youth project(s) come about?
MW: Kim Gordon saw my show of collages in New York and asked the gallery for slides of my work. They chose the image of me as a little girl hamster for 1000 Leaves record. It was a wonderful surprise as I was a big fan. Then when there was the art show of artists inspired by Sonic Youth in Europe they asked me to do the posters for the Swedish exhibition. I was again thrilled.
I wanted people to feel that same special feeling I had holding a record. Like it was very rare and special.
FYD: You are entirely multi media; music, videos, collage, costumes. Do the elements pull together for you easily?
MW: I work in many mediums but I always have a narrative running through the work. For instance the Spirit Girls were a group of girls of my imagining who had a band but all died young and tragically before the band had success. So I told their story through film, performance and showed their landscape through collage. The sculptures were like toys from their dreams.
FYD: Are your Spirit Girls coming back for another round or are they free amongst the waves?
MW: I think the Spirit Girls are Free for a while but it might be nice if they came back for a cameo in a future series.