Artist Statement

 Questionable Origins  

My art mirrors natural forms with biomorphic dystopian edges. In the viewer’s mind the shapes are familiarly organic yet there is a tension as one struggles to comprehend the life cycle stage being anthropomorphized.  Is it a nascent form or one going through the throes of death? Or more simply: is it a cocoon or is it a skeleton?

My work is heavily influenced by my interest in nature and science.  As a child, dinnertime conversations were a blend of my mother attending to our growing family’s needs and my father sharing updates from the scientific community- specifically his occupation: testing metallurgical samples- often by x-ray.  My current sculptural work in many ways blends these two; nurture and science or Mom and Dad.

Movement, texture and complexity of form are integral as well.  My hope is that when approaching the viewer will be drawn in by the relaxed floating form; then intrigued by ever- changing views of the work- seeing both through and around simultaneously.  Texture, shadow and line add to the multidimensional cornucopia of delights.  My materials are selected to guide your eyes across the surface and equally allow you to pause for contemplation. The forms float like leaves on a river; animated by the light in the room and amplified by the point of view of the person standing in front of them.  That makes it experiential.  Because of its complex form the sculptures breath, ooze, and metamorphose. Shadows are cast by the animated gestural forms tethered to the wall.  These shadows soften the hard lines and enlarge and deepen the work while expanding the power of the object.  I have created the object, but the object has liberated itself and gone beyond.

I create biomorphic organisms that appear to be communicating human-like emotional needs (nurture).  These newly formed organisms represent a new questionable species conjured in my studio by cross-breeding insects, birds, fish and vegetation.  Their skeletal hulls revealing germ, the pending emergence of new life from chrysalis.  The ectoplasm now peeling away from the dystopian structure, miraculously composed of metal, revealed (x-rays).