Statement

I use figurative ceramics to create fantastical narrative vignettes that explore themes of purpose, self-worth, and personal identity. The figure in my work encourages the viewer to think of the subject in relation to themselves through sharing a physical space and physical characteristics. I incorporate mixed media and found objects into my ceramic sculpture to contextualize the figure; to ground the work in its own reality.

I draw from a variety of artistic influences. For example, ceramics sculptor, Beth Cavener inspires me in the way she utilizes gestural animal figures to explore human emotion and instinct & the work of Jonathan Christensen Caballero has informed my work in how he combines his ceramic figures with fabrics and adornment to express the figures origins and culture. Drawing heavily from fantasy, my work takes inspiration from works of fiction like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, Tom King’s Mister Miracle, Hidetaka Miyazaki’s Dark Souls, and many more.  These works inspire me in how they speak to navigating universal feelings of inadequacy, inevitability, and purposelessness.

The influences on my work coalesce to create glimpses into the story of a character, often monstrous and wretched; one who represents that less-than-human feeling we all know. My work is meant to draw from the viewer a feeling of empathy for a thing unlike them. I want the viewer to see good in the grotesque and humanity in the heinous. I make monsters we can see ourselves in.