Statement

My sculptures are an assembly of engaging surfaces and forms revealing varying textures and vibrant colors referencing natural and fabricated worlds. Each individual sculpture is its own exploration, often finding inspiration through unseen bioforms. I strive to make the invisible visible. I use colors with the ability to evoke memories and create joy. A sense of belonging or place is created through their colors and textures which initiate exploration of the uncertain. Unfamiliar yet familiar forms emerge, blurring the divide between anatomical, botanical and the manufactured. 

 Integrating the traditional craft materials of clay and fiber begins to recontextualize their implications. My use of traditional needle felting, handweaving, appliques, and sprigging originates from my desire to celebrate these techniques. My sculptures are evidence of the vast possibilities of these materials, which have always held a considerable value to me. This peculiarity pulls one in and has become an element I strive to communicate within my own work.  I use the dualities of these influences simultaneously to build upon traditional elements and to break conventional thought. 

The hardness of fired porcelain is placed in contrast with the inclusion of felted or woven wool that is integrated in and around the ceramic forms. Often I approach working with each material as I would work with the other. Mimicking the soft materiality of fibers in clay through the use of ceramic ruffles, ropes, and appliqués. Then working with fibers finding ways to create a sense of rigidity within the fibers. Fiber provides an expectation of softness and vulnerability, emanating a sense of warmth, pulling one in and providing comfort. This is offset by the unexpected coldness of the durable porcelain effecting a sense of distance and fragility. Therefore, an uncertainty exists as to how to handle the forms or how to interact physically with them. The distinct qualities of both wool and porcelain allow for the ambiguity of each material to be blended yet contrasted with their invented counterparts.

 By creating relationships between various elements, I explore my fascination with material qualities and processes. The resulting works are compositions of material, color and form which become entangled in process, thought, tactility and emotion.