artist statement
I am besotted with love for the human form, specifically emanations of the figure in motion.
My attempt is to create and portray a kind of gestural language: a vocabulary of postures. As people, we gravitate naturally to the human form - Western art is full of it, often in a resting, static state. My figures are animated, bursting with life, energetic expressions of the moving body, caught at the apex of a pose. What do they say? How does it feel to see them?
The materials I choose are lightweight. Fabric, paper, wire, thread, tape, super-fine doll maker’s clay – all used in such a way as to capture the essence of this journey of motion. Often the work is hollow, supplying two palettes with which to work: the inner palette, that which can be seen from the outside but describes the inner space, and the outer palette: that which wraps the figure, cloaking it in the skin that is most immediately seen.
Beauty is cherished and consciously coaxed from every form. Just as it is impossible to throw back one’s head with chest and arms open to the sky and simultaneously experience depression, beauty works irresistibly on the soul. Arising from vigorous athletic bodies as well as from distressed, recycled materials gleaned from thrift stores and stitched together, or pierced and fastened with metal brads, this is actual rather than idealized beauty.
Mounting such forms presents a unique challenge. Sometimes simply hanging them with monofilament provides the most effective and minimal display, so that they can continue to move with currents in the air, or can be gently touched and encouraged to spin. Sometimes the sinewy forms of Colorado juniper, or Great Lakes driftwood, itself so fully expressed as arrested motion, supplies a fitting base for the miniature sculptures. And found objects: old rusted metal, the toe of a plow, can ground the almost weightless fabric pieces in their flight.
Life-sized and miniature forms most interest me. Life-sized figures have the impact of being just that: life-sized. We can all relate, as that’s what we are. Miniatures have the unique ability to sculpt space, carving the air around them. As such, they become almost monolithic, while simultaneously intimate: the whole apprehended in a glance.
Ultimately, this is my commitment; “I promise a world illuminated by art, awakening humanity to the rapture of being alive.” I believe that people, awake and alive, can create a world that works for everyone. If my art contributes to this in some small way, then my promise will be fulfilled.
