STATEMENT OF WORK

Living in a fragile and precarious world, a whirl is a constant state; we are moving and trying. 

I turn to a critical and aesthetic investigation of image and form that invites empathy toward the natural and human-made environments that support us. 

I choose materials and processes that generate instances in which the act of looking can be both through and divided by the construction of the artwork itself. 

I diffuse the entanglement of images and ornament inspired by plant life and long used as decorative starting points in art and design into sculpture and print-based works. 

The installation of these sculptures evokes notions of stage set design, the procession, or the organization of a garden, where arrangement and structure reveal interconnectedness. I look to examples of deterioration and regeneration in the growth cycles of plants, as well as evolutions of forms within the history of design. In Western art, for example, acanthus leaves on Greek architecture evolved into the baroque Rococo filigree, which turned into 1960s kitsch floral cast iron lawn furniture. This exploration of unsettled forms extends to an attraction to the glitch as a slip of information that shows its own making, a beautiful error. 

As a stage in my print process, I use scanners and photo editing to manipulate, enhance, and interfere with my imagery. While this development layer is usually hidden in the final resolve, it is essential in forming the final state. 

Retaining gestural traces of my process firmly places the work in this world, while the forms themselves suggest the otherworldly visioning required of those seeking mystery, joy, and change.

I investigate correlations between image and form through intimate interaction with materials and techniques that draw on the historical dialogue between domestic labor and fine and decorative arts. In my forms, paper and silk are printed, composited, and wrapped around or sewn to wooden, wire, and foam armatures, creating dimensional sculptures that extend the printed matter beyond the surface. 

Rhythms of symbiosis and separation are emphasized in the reflection and removal of elements as they’re repeated, lost, or elaborated on. I reflect a tenuous grappling with the body and nature as constructed and never settled into one form.