Art
Artist Statement
My work explores humankind’s complicated relationship with the natural world, bringing attention to the sometimes heedless or reckless interactions between humans and insects or nature, and broader issues of a viewer’s role in the environment. Within this larger theme, my subjects are human figures, insects, and waste, separated visually, but related by ideology.
My art speaks the need to give more concern and caution to the environments we inhabit. To ignore our actions will be ruinous.
FIBERS
"Spillage" Series
My fibers work approaches the ridiculous amount of waste humans produce on both small and large scales making the issue both intimate and a manifestation of the insuppressible amount of trash we generate. The images represented in fiber reflect our neglect in what happens to our waste and the disregard that fiber arts have traditionally received. I’m also interested in challenging the historical context of fibers and water-media as inherently feminine, clean, and aconceptual.
BUGS
"Squished" Series
Squished bugs illicit feelings of disgust. But the insect depicted here isn't real - it is only a drawing. Why then do we feel the same reaction at a painting? And why can't we stop looking at it? My "Squished" series draws on the "erotics of disgust," as well as the viewer's role on the environment. Squished bugs don't happen naturally - it is usually by the hand of a human that insects are squished, whether on purpose or accident.
"Blind Consumption" Series
The human figures are infected by both their smartphones and the cordyceps fungi or inhabit an insect’s environment. Conversely, the watercolor insects in my work are “squished” -- a common action performed by us humans -- but painted large-scale in intricate detail to confront the viewer with a viscerally offensive image yet intriguing quality of beauty.
My work process is to gather photographic imagery, whether from the internet or my own hand (for the insects, I squash and photograph them myself). The images for human figures and squished insects are painted using gouache and watercolor, respectively. I’ve chosen to leave the background white; it conveys the cleanliness that as a culture, we wish nature had. Fiber images are manipulated digitally, and then change physically with glue, paint, chalk, or trash; some pieces are embroidered after these processes.
