Artist statement
Whether in response to living in New York City, or to something I’ve looked for inside myself, the work I make brings with it a meditative moment.
I want to stop, reflect, be still and present to my own life.
Our desires often remain in the realm of something we strive toward rather than achieve… a state of inquiry and reflection we may never completely fulfill.
In art making, I approach the process by working in multiples. It is a way to learn about each form and explore an idea. The repetition becomes increasingly meditative. How will these forms go together? How does the individual develop its own identity, find recognition and yet be a cohesive part of the family, the community, the world?
My current work consists of smaller forms that are then assembled into a larger piece or installation. In each, I strive for simplicity in the form and a calmness in the surface, hoping for a quiet yet strong presence. The surfaces are unadorned, monochromatic; keeping the focus on the form. Each component is imbued with a symbolic, ritualistic aspect that gives it its own identity, strength and purpose. These parts, or individuals can just as easily stand alone. When they are combined, each part as well as the assemblage has new meaning, energy and purpose. They become landscapes or still-lifes, or interior landscapes. Some reference the spine, some the air we breathe or a rock outcropping, some hang in space; but they are all communities.
It was during campouts in the California desert as a teenager where I first came to appreciate the stark beauty in nature’s deceptively ‘barren’ landscapes. It is where the naked earth, the lone boulder and the long horizon came to comfort me.