Homecoming – An Autumn Festival is a large-scale, mixed-media installation that brings together sculpture, painting, textiles, light, sound, and digital programming to create an immersive fairground environment. The project began as an inquiry I undertook alongside my students, modeled after the sustained investigation I ask them to pursue in their A.P. art class, and it gradually expanded into a multi-year exploration of narrative, portraiture, and human connection. Rather than following a fixed plan, I allowed the work to grow organically through process and reflection.. 

Drawing on my childhood memories of a small-town Midwestern homecoming festival and the festivals here in Vermont, I combine hand-carved wood, metal, glass, fabric, oil paint, encaustic, and programmable LEDs to examine themes of time, memory, family, and community. The fairground functions as a framework for portraits and objects that invite viewers to move through the space, engage closely with the work, and consider how individual stories and shared experiences intersect.