STATEMENT

FUNCTIONAL WORK

The primary objective of my work is to create thoughtful, personal compositions which explore relationships with the world around us. 

My forms are rooted in an aesthetic developed through an interest in architecture and design. The understated designs developed by mid-century architects and designers provide a springboard to help resolve the relationship between form and function. These concepts for organizing space are put to work through proportion, Segmentation, and through the use of color and surface.

Divergent, contrasting, surfaces, and patterns explore design elements and metaphors for the intersection of urban development and nature.  These surfaces include ecological inspirations contrasted with geometric patterns to create play between divisions which reference structures, neighborhoods, and local ecology. My floral patterns are designed to highlight local native plants and the importance of relationships with nature by highlighting indigenous species of plants..  

These busy contemplative, functional, objects highlight the world in which we live by exploring ways we often segment, structure and compartmentalize our worlds and curated experiences.

VESSELS OF MEMORY

These vessels are designed to have an ambiguous context, straddling a line between celebratory and memorial. Like our memories, they can be both cheerful and sorrowful simultaneously. They are stand-ins for moments which I look back on fondly but know I will, regretfully, never get to experience again. By taking natural objects which are attached to memories and using them as decorative elements to embellish these vessels I revisit those points in time. The mimosa trees that grew along the walkway of my childhood home as the fluffy pink flowers fell in early summer, the magnolia tree which I use to climb at my grandmother's house, the cholla cactus skeletons which dotted the horizon during my runs in Santa Fe, or the tulip poplar trees’ beautiful leaves and seed pods from my time in Tennessee all evoke memories and experiences which have formed ineradicable marks on my life. These leaves, twigs,  pods, and husks bring me back to a place and summon feelings and memories which I experienced. It is my hope that these pieces will stir memories in every viewer as recognition of the ornamentation awakens memories and experiences that they might share with others. In this way we allow nature to connect us all through a network of storytelling and shared experience.