Statement

My work blends fragments of worthy but unwanted things into fantastical sculptures that connect to histories, memories, and our competing desires to protect ourselves and connect to one another.

Each sculpture is built intuitively and goes through many phases of development. The work emerges from a swirling soup of textures and material contradictions: synthetic and organic, shiny and dull, precious and disposable, plush and quill-like. Reclaimed from curbside "free" piles, or from bags of random stuff resulting from a friend's decluttering, once-sentimental things like holiday ornaments, stuffed animals, handmade afghans, and sweaters are grafted and entwined with discretely functional things like toothpicks, buttons, sponges, window screens and reimagined as essential elements in new, unfolding narratives. These familiar materials converge into both vibrant, maximalist assemblages, as well as sparse, spectral forms that respond to my desire to create harmony and wonder from a baseline overwhelm and anxiety.