Statement of Practice

Prior to becoming a professional artist I taught philosophy. During that time I explored 'relationality' — the philosophical concept of how beings are connected. I examined questions that attempted to make sense of the relationship between self and other such as: Who am I and how am I connected to you, if at all? How is my existence bound to yours? My work and practice explore similar questions of relationality and experience.

My studio practice is heavily process oriented. Rather than beginning with a meaning for a piece, I allow it to form before listening to what it wants to mean. Though I’m curious as to what the end result will be, I allow my curiosity to build over the life of the piece. This process is deeply relational. In curating a space for the material and images to take shape, I cultivate a practice of listening and intuitive communication. In this way I am bound to the material, our respective identities formed and informed by the other.

The work swims in the relationship between the material and immaterial, between what is real and what is imagined. Through the combination of natural materials (tree stumps, sticks, wool, and moss) and humanmade materials (plaster, twine, stoneware) I extend to the viewer the opportunity to experience the material in a way that exists within their own context. In other words, the completed forms are an extension of my interest in relationality—While the viewer may see something, be it joy or sadness, that does not mean I necessarily intended it. The interpretation is co-creative.

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In my practice of noticing I find branches and stones curious things to explore. I’m interested in how they feel, what they look like together, what their relationship is to one another and to us as viewers and makers. How do they take up space? What does that space feel like? How do I feel in their presence? These are things that are really interesting to me and it feels deeply spiritual. I want to live a life of noticing.