Artist Statement

My work represents an excavation of the subconscious, much like writing down a dream, but in visual form. I frequently use the architecture of human figures as a container for intuitive interpretations of spiritual connectedness, mental fragmentation, and self-reflection.

My actual making process is solitary, intuitive, and exploratory, one where I follow my attention and let the medium/s guide the creation of forms and direction of each piece in something like a meditative state, akin to channeling. Rather than illustrating a fixed narrative, I am more concerned with process and discovery, intending to evoke a powerful mood or emotional response, and allowing the viewer to find themselves within the work and create their own transportive narrative around it.

Although clay has been my main instrument and closest to my heart, I’ve always been a mixed media artist moving between mediums/formats depending on how I want to express myself, striving to keep intuition fresh and my mind curious and un-self-conscious. I use textural mediums that I work intimately and physically with, often along with found/reclaimed materials from my environment. Although using found objects began as (and remains) a practicality, transforming ordinary and/or found materials into something unexpected and viscerally emotive has become part of my praxis.

A reverence for traditional craft is embedded in my education and critical to my process. For me that involves being able to see and feel the “hand” in the work. There is a familiarity in craft that connects us contemporaneously and with our ancestors who used their hands with the same materials and techniques thousands of years before us. That unspoken connection to tradition holds a sacredness for me that adds meaning to the material and work, whether I’m making a functional object, a sculptural installation, or two-dimensional work.