Artist Statement
My art is immediate and experiential – it’s my intuitive conversation with material and my response to a world where nothing is static. I think a lot about transformative processes in nature – endless and simultaneous growth, disintegration, adaptation, and repurposing. I’m inspired by this constant change that I also observe in myself. I work with paper, ink, and clay in active conversations, connecting ecological forms with my inner experience.
Process as a material
It always starts with drawing. For me, drawing is a way to process my experiences and synthesize visual information. Exploring rhythms, patterns, and gestures through line, I build a language with archetypal shapes that come up again and again in my work. I collage and recombine my drawings, sometimes into paper cut-outs, so I can play with their movement and transform them again into something new. As I compose, I respond to the juxtapositions of busy lines and flowing cut outs, adding reflective surfaces and bringing in found materials. The results are sculptural compositions that explode and meander; they become tactile journeys through color and form.
My relationship with clay is long and intimate. Clay is a negotiation with its own physicality and I push it as far as I can to discover forms that are filled with movement and defy gravity. Varied surfaces allow light and shadow to define the space within the form and lead the viewer through the sculpture. Light softly hugs the bare clay, while reflective and metallic glazes change the tempo of the piece, speeding everything up.
Motion and emotion
Making is deeply human and an incredibly important act. Craftsmanship invites the viewer into the conversation with materials. I believe the presence of the maker’s hand builds human connection, and hand-making work to a high level of refinement is a statement of this value.
My work is best when it is becoming itself – sometimes that means it becomes outrageously pretty and flowery, feminine, explosive, tangled, unexpected, extra. It takes me on a journey that is non-linear, but not purely abstract. That is why I like to think of the compositions as songs more than stories; they are felt more than read. They are meant to be experienced. Rhythm and visual motifs guide the viewer through the experience, ultimately connecting back to emotions. When I let in the emotion, my work begins to parallel my own journey. It mirrors my inability to sit still, my exploration of material, my love of discovery, and my response to motion in nature and the fragmentation of light. This is the bridge between my interior world and the viewer.