STATEMENT
I am an artist utilizing a variety of media and methods, making work in response to the human experience and our relationship to the natural and built environment. Utilizing natural, found, and purchased materials, I create works and facilitate events and interventions that address themes of connection with and participation in nature, the arts and sciences, agriculture, and each other. My multimedia approach for these works includes a variety of clay bodies, casting in metal, textiles, site specific works often made with found or recycled materials, and relational aesthetics.
The ecological concepts within my art germinated from conversations with farmers and the personal experience of growing my own food and raising urban hens. I also steadfastly read about issues related to our contemporary food systems, which have often centered on the lore and beauty, and sometimes controversy, of corn. I respond to these concepts in my ceramic studio by making sculptural objects based on crops, the human form, and other natural representations. My hand-building skills afford me the ability to make functional or sculptural works that fulfill a fundamental human need to make, unapologetically.
My social practice works, developed from my recreation therapy practice.. Healing and engagement in an era that makes those two things a challenge have been my aim. I host a Mending a Life event where I invite others to collectively embark on personal mending projects.As a facilitating artist, I guide conversations and activities reflective of building self and communal wellness .
Making traditional art works and hosting relational experiences is fulfilling on a variety of levels. Most fundamentally, I make works that I wish existed. I do these things to please my own sense of self and drive for a creative outlet. Due to the accessible vocabulary of art, I transform these personal impulses into universal forms of communication. I adhere to the Fluxus philosophy “The distinguishing factors between art and life are irrelevant."