Artist Statement
I create multi-media installations which combine ceramics, textile arts, and painting. My work is essentially data, data that is a visualization of both my conscious and subconscious processing of the world around me. I need to make something every day to keep myself grounded; it’s just the way I’m programmed. I will create a set number of something for a set number of days; I then compile these creations into groupings (i.g. my “tide pools.”) Examining the collections allows me, as a visual learner, to draw conclusions about evolution, namely how my mental fluctuations and changing disposition during a period of time leave impressions that are physically perceptible. Time is a critical element of this work. By producing a series of work over several days or weeks, I construct a linear perspective on time. Yet, I then subvert this linear perspective by reassociating works based on the visual, material, or emotional values they signal, creating an abstraction of said line. This play between the linear act of production and the non-linear act of consideration becomes the spiral. The spiral challenges the notion of time as a solely straightforward property, instead presenting the idea that parts of our past will resurface, thus canceling the idea of a past. Phenomenologically speaking, our experience of making or viewing art is always rooted in a resurgence of what we’ve already experienced. I wouldn’t consider this nostalgia but rather our making sense of the world around us. Growth patterns are cyclical, but growth is predicated on accepting that we are continually processing our experiences and will continue to. This work has offered me a way of doing this in a beneficial rather than harmful way.
