My body of work includes single sculptural objects and vessels, multiple objects in installation settings and works on paper that are “collaged” using drawings of my actual sculpture, and digitally manipulated found images. The materials I use are predominately ceramic based with the additions of wood, paper, Plexiglas and fibers. Most of my making process is informed by the techniques and vocabulary of ceramic processes which I have used for many years.
I was first drawn to working in clay because of my attraction to vessel forms, which had its early roots with my childhood fascination with my grandmother’s extensive pottery collection. I am still drawn to vessel shapes particularly bottles, baskets and vase forms, not for their functionality but for the ideas they non-verbally communicate, i.e. containment and nurturing, social and cultural rituals and of course the relationship to our own bodies. Vessels are anthropomorphic. Often the abstract sculptural objects I make reference both vessels and animate forms. I synthesize and abstract, flora and fauna such as the birds and rabbits in the woods behind my studio, while other elements are inanimate—rocks, land forms and decorative architectural elements that predominate in St. Louis. This process of abstracting then leads to the creation of new forms, sometimes referred to as “eccentric forms”. This term was used by art theorist, Lucy Lippard, to describe objects that seem familiar yet out of sync with the ordinary. I use eccentric forms as a device to provoke contemplation and to hopefully communicate to the viewer on a fundamental level beyond language. I often group my pieces and add in other objects to create a “silent conversation” between the pieces. This also provides an impetus for larger installations and my drawings.
In the past, the subject of my bio-morphic work and surrealistic installations often alluded to the ideas of hybridization, cloning and my discomfort with man’s biological interference’s. Although I do not see my work as didactic, my intense attraction to the natural world makes me very concerned about ecology. I increasingly make work that reflects those concerns while celebrating the awe and wonderment I find in nature’s beauty. Like many contemporary artists I source images that only exist because of 20th century technology. These are the micro/macro type images that have increased our scientific understanding of nature and for me have increased my amazement with the logic underlying the natural world and my awareness of the fragility and the interconnections of it all.
A text collage of words pertaining to my work:
