Artist Statement


My work is often born from one of the following experiences: an indescribable feeling of excitement; a nagging contradiction; a need to share something that I cannot yet explain; an obsession; a question or series of questions; a desire to respond to or reflect on a thought, feeling, or event; the recognition of something poignant or absurd; a deep pain; the experience of misunderstanding.

The systems of construction I use are adapted and adopted from historical craft disciplines. Although the unit or material may change from one work to another, these systems highlight the interdependence of each unit upon the whole. I use very simple tools and work in low-tech ways to keep evidence of the hand and the human embedded in the work.

The studio is an ecosystem of my making: I re-purpose as much as possible (my cast glass and clay are reclaimed materials or mixed in small batches and reused until no longer viable). I design to reduce my energy and material consumption and to consider the cyclical nature of materials and of making. I make. I unmake or, at times, I feel unmade. Living is a dynamic, daily process. Life is tenuous and thrilling, delicate and precarious, simple and complicated, wry and serious. I ask my work to embody these seemingly disparate realities.

Each sculpture and installation is a way to advocate for an intentional relationship with the worlds of material and metaphor. An exploration of touch and intuitive making is deeply embedded in my practice. Clay serves as palimpsest; I seek to exploit its inherent variations in surface and texture, its ability to mimic, to be thick, thin, ephemeral or permanent. The physical recordings that come through rolling, tearing, squishing, dipping, pushing, pinching, casting, and scratching become representations of touch, of thought, of time spent.