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Material
choices, the exploration of objects and recognizable forms in my
artwork addresses many personal themes and memories. This
imagery in my work serves to link the physical forms to a
multi-fold of possible mental and/or emotional equivalents.
Defining space in terms of a mechanism of design and in regards
to evoking a feeling reoccurs in my artwork. I seek out
techniques to successfully yield a desired result. Likewise,
execution of craft has much to do with the importance I pay to
detailing patterns and finishing surfaces. The use of multiple
processes and materials serves to create my mixed-media pieces.
This personal exploration is an intimately systematic approach
to the technical workings of materials, thought, and theme.
The marriage of
aesthetically pleasing materials to the functionality of the
chosen materials (the physical and natural qualities a material
yields) allows me to seek out and select appropriately. These
material choices aid in the development of the desired thematic
motif. For example, the use of handmade paper in my artwork is
selected for its skin-like, fragile, and transparent qualities,
reminding me of snake skin shells, or insect wings. This
contrasts with the chosen man-made forms that serve to echo a
similar function, but in a cold mechanical way. Ultimately, I
search for contrast (heavy v. light, roots v. flight/fleeing,
organic v. man-made, etc.). This tension between materials and
theme leads me to play with the feelings produced, thus
transforming the information to the personal, intimate level for
interpretation.
I draw
inspiration from a diversity of sources- literary books, nature,
modern living, and a spectrum of artists from several
disciplines. I have a special regard for objects and images
that evoke memories, skipping through time and holding space.
As time unravels, memories become symbolic fragments or
signifiers of a past event. As a result, memory is triggered by
specific colors, forms, sounds, smells, etc. that the senses are
bombarded with while perceiving our physical world. These
senses yank at our brains forcing us to draw from past
recognizable experiences. The state of nostalgia, addressing
the whimsical and sometimes quirky feelings of being human, is a
driving mechanism behind the material choices and conceptual
elements in my artwork.
I enjoy the
power of suggestion my pieces might evoke from the viewer. Upon
further exploration of my artworks, one discovers things are not
always as they appear to be or that there is more than meets the
eye, a message in a bottle, a subtle tease or play of
materials. It might be a story or a feeling leading the eye to
discover more lingering than what is on the surface. My artwork
sends a message, a visual voice about which draws from life
without words, but with the power of seeing.
I use the
actual physical function of an object to evoke the mental or
emotional equivalent. The sense of movement (i.e. repetitive
circular motifs, such as propellers and wing nuts), has an equal
mental interpretation. The circle motif and sense of movement
ideally symbolizes the feelings of confusion, such as dizzying
effects, or in contrast- completeness and progress. Similarly,
many of my pieces have a loss of original function. Objects of
use are transformed, encapsulated, or embedded in transparent
frozen materials. A domed pan lid becomes a mirror where the
viewer must stare at themselves within my art piece. Injection
wax keys are quilted. Mesh wings are entombed in an ice cube of
resin - no longer functioning, sealed away frozen and useless,
but beautifully timeless. Space might become an envelope, a
cocoon, a time capsule. |
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