The artwork I make is a response to the environment that I grew up in. Coming from a socio-economically challenged and dysfunctional family background I learned from an early age that there was only so much that I should aspire to. The expectations for what I could achieve should be more practical in nature and they should be dependable, reliable, and offer stability . I learned that I should always be able to pick myself up by my bootstraps.
Drawing from that background, I learned to make ... view more »
The artwork I make is a response to the environment that I grew up in. Coming from a socio-economically challenged and dysfunctional family background I learned from an early age that there was only so much that I should aspire to. The expectations for what I could achieve should be more practical in nature and they should be dependable, reliable, and offer stability . I learned that I should always be able to pick myself up by my bootstraps.
Drawing from that background, I learned to make the most from what is available to me, finding agency through the creation of beauty. I feel drawn to domestic objects that have been tossed away. Like people, they are marked by their interaction with others, holding meanings and histories within them that sometimes show and other times are felt. I feel compassion for these unvalued items that dot the landscape, seen as nothing more than litter.
I transform these discarded domestic objects into works that take them away from their mass-produced origins and reimagine their narrative into something more singular and personal. Taking them apart and thoughtfully reassembling them, I create sculptural work that feels familiar through materiality, yet strange through its transfiguration. Combined with other discarded domestic materials, the work explores identity and belonging through the lens of an interior landscape, expressing a yearning for a sense of belonging, a desire for home and connection to nature.
I create beauty from the overlooked, making whole what has been broken through the acts of weaving, re-wilding the domestic objects into organic forms that recontextualize and connect them back to an exterior environment, conjuring dreamlike impressions for the viewer to experience and reflect on.
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