Artist statement

The female body, domestic space and natural space itself all hearken to gender. All three also bear the expectation that they carry life. My work concerns what happens to those spaces when that expectation is thwarted.

My work is painted assemblage across multiple media and processes. I am particularly drawn to explore areas and objects that hold significance in domestic life.

The genesis of a piece is often a found object that evokes an earlier time. Through alteration, subtraction, and the addition of other objects, I create situations that the viewer is familiar with and may find comfort in, however, further examination will often reveal that these spaces are not safe and are, in fact, compromised. The familiar space has decayed and deteriorated and nature has invaded. Although we enjoy images of nature stylized and mimicked in wallpaper, upholstery, and carpeting, true nature is intended to be kept outside. It is in this ambivalent attitude that I find inspiration.

Similarly, nature is intended to be kept entirely separate from the immaculate, idealized, feminine body. That female bodies are expected to be groomed to remove all body hair, to hide menstruation, while simultaneously providing for the fecundity of life, is inherently unnatural. In my sculptural work, this feminine body-space is also reclaimed by nature.

Left to its own, nature will always ultimately reclaim spaces humans have struggled hard to control. Nature lays bare our innate humanity, and reveals it to be a part of it, not apart from it, and I seek to reveal this in my work.