My work is a continual exploration of biomorphic abstractions derived from nature that play with the tensions between solid and negative spaces. The work invites the negative space to stand up and be noticed.
I’m fascinated with creating an illusion of air inflating and pushing outward from within the sculpture. These sculptures vacillate between being ‘puffed up with air’, or conversely surrendering their outer shape, so the form appears to deflate or even bend under its own weight.
The sense of air pressure building inside and stretching against the walls creates a perception that the piece is a living breathing entity.
“As a ceramicist, it gives me great pleasure to transform this elastic, malleable material, that is so extremely heavy and dense, into imaginative objects of weightless beauty.”
Built up and cut away, a solid slab of clay becomes an arrangement of repetitive carved spaces that resemble lace, a complex exoskeleton, or scaffolding of the original form. The act of removing clay in my hand building is just as integral to the building up of the complex constructions to achieve their final composition. Light filters onto carved edges and defines shadows and lines. Subtle shifts and changes in appearance occur naturally on the sculpture, depending on how light infuses itself within the piece.
Stains, slips and glazes are applied to the surfaces at a variety of different stages. Surface textures and color enhance the curves and folds, treating the eye to a painterly palette of soft and weathered hues layered over one another.
Staging Objects
Recently I have begun bringing forms together onto a shared platform or stage. Assemblages of random objects working alongside one another creating amalgams of poetic lyricism. Abstract in nature, Dadaist in concept. Pulling from the subconscious and not questioning the reason.
In this curious series, I love exploring subtle juxtapositions of unrelated objects as they come together and deliberately set a peculiar tone or mood to the final piece. I give these objects a voice which is sometimes whimsical or sometimes serious in the narrative.
From my series, one might notice an object resting its head on another for comfort. In another work, a carved open form is stilted with what looks like drinking straws propping up the top portion of the sculpture.
These collections of forms, with their imaginary figurative gestures and highly textured skins, rely on each other to equalize their balance.