Visual Art

In the beginning the need to draw these figures was compulsive. There was no thinking really. It just happened, the obsession to do it was powerful. 

looking back now,  I can have an opinion about the process. I think I was trying to create a woman in a state of complete acceptance of herself sexually. A woman with self love, freedom and peace. I could not find her within or outside of myself, so I drew her , and her world.

artist bio

In the spring of 2014, Simi had a heartbreaking split from a longtime love. Suffering an emotional breakdown, Simi was inconsolable for weeks and bed-ridden with a flu. She finally emerged, still sick with loss. Simi would stare out through the trees while taking walks to dull the pain when she wasn’t making music.

At the same time a well known Woodstock artist, Richard Segalman, came into her life and asked to paint her. He called her his muse. They talked and he worked. She related to him on a deep level. They became very good friends. The smell of his painting studio was both foreign and healing. 

Visual art soon became her constant companion. She fell asleep clutching Van Gogh and Gauguin art books, relating very much to their individual struggles. Engulfed in majestic colors and stories, she took great comfort in museums.

All through that year Simi toured and made several musical recordings. There were times of laughter, yet she was still plagued with episodes of intense obsession and overwhelming anxiety. 

During one of these very dark periods, while working on a musical project in New York, a good friend handed Simi, in desperation, a drawing pad and some pastels. She drew and drew for the entire weekend, relieved from the grip of insanity for hours. 

Simi was given the pad and pastels to take home with her to Woodstock. She hasn't stopped drawing and creating artwork since. She thinks it may have saved her life.