 She early became interested in creating somewhat abstracted animal forms and in the early 1934 moved to Paris to study direct carving with Mateo Hernandez (1884-1949), from whom she learned the art of direct carving.She would go to the zoo and carve sculptures of animals, an unusual technique for direct carvers.In 1936, following the success of her carving "Tortoise" she was elected a member of the "Salon d;Automne", the only foreigner and the only woman thus honored that year.