As an artist and artisan my work explores the connections
between my past experiences, with my family and communities, to materials and
their connotations.
I create installations that explore materials, their limits,
and relationships to spirituality and my personal life. I reinterpret many
everyday materials such as cardboard, foil, paper and wood. The materials I
select for this type of work is integral to the shape as well as the concepts
behind the work.
The objects and designed pieces I create deal with the same
concepts but used in a intuitive way. I create bespoke leather tooled shoes and leather interactive objects such as bags and accessories. I reinterpret existing garments to embody new ideas, as well as designing new garments to support the reinterpreted collections. I design and craft fine furniture made from cardboard as well as the more traditional wood. These designed objects often find themselves as part of installations and performances that blur the lines between art, life, memory and realitiy.
Both bodies of my work deal with the serenity and beauty of
the natural world, and connect to my childhood growing up in a rural suburb of
Northen California. Many of my pieces involve the serenitiy of a simple repeated
motion or the ritual involved while looking at a piece. I also reinterpret
religious icons and ideas as I see connections to my life. As part of my
creative process I create mind maps that record the connections I see between
the personal and universal as well as material and concept. I research before I
begin, looking at bound encyclopedias and books as well as periodicals such as
National Geographic before going online.
