My work contemplates the transformative process in the natural world and celebrates the nuance and surprises found in the ‘ordinary’. The work is part of an investigative process of discovering narrative, metaphor, and beauty (sometimes terrible beauty), to invite a deeper response.
Altered wheel thrown ceramics invite both visual and tactile responses. Forms are pierced, cut, or altered to enhance organic elements hinting at a place of transition or transformation. The pieces use contrast through texture, light and form to explore metaphors of community, memory, loss, and transformation, while inviting the viewer to construct their own narratives.
Paintings combine realism and abstraction to consider and celebrate imperfections and the unexpected in everyday life and the natural world. Extrapolating subjects from the environment or shifting the focus toward abstraction raises questions about what is observed in the natural world.
Much of my research is hands-on as an avid outdoor recreationalist and wanderer; scribbling sketches of fleeting moments and challenging my formal training in realism to capture a more immediate response to the subject. I hope to challenge the viewer’s expectations by reimagining familiar forms, focusing on how texture invites and repels, the impact of weather, contrast, and the passing of time. Some series may take months or years to feel the narrative has been completed.