At the center of my artistic practice and process are the themes of fragility and vulnerability. I use these themes to reference the body and bodies, scientific thought and mystical belief, the natural world and the built environment as well as societal roles and individual identities.  I am interested in contemporary concerns that inform and challenge how we navigate, neglect and nurture ourselves, one another and the spaces and places we inhabit.

 

This collection of pieces began as an exploration of clay techniques, which in turn informed the evolution of a series I had been working on previously that focused on the ocean. 

 

In my research for this series, I discovered manufactured mats made of human and animal hair that are used to remediate oil spills. (These extraordinary objects serve the essential purpose of preventing further man-made damage to the ocean’s delicate ecosystem.)  

 

On a personal level, the hairmats symbolize the interconnectedness of living beings in the world.  Hair also carries meanings of power, strength and vitality (as in myths and as expressions of fertility), identity (culturally-specific preferences for hair styles and fashion through the ages) as well as life and death (Victorian Memento Mori, the lanugo on newborns). Biblically, hair signifies purity and holiness.

 

Inspired, I began to make clay objects that were in conversation with the hairmats, including seafaring (ropes, knots), marine biology (corals, fish, sea creatures) and human anatomy (umbilical cords, intestines, genitalia).  The rope sculptures in particular also embody notions of restraint, control, security, capture, tension and connection.

 

Research and discovery — of ideas and issues, of materials and methods — fuel my imagination. I strive to create singular works that both complement and challenge notions of the beautiful and the grotesque.  My aesthetic is rooted in these contrasts, and my intention is to present formal visual provocations for the viewer that foster dialogue along with intrinsic resonance.