Every artistic medium offers unique qualities to the user, and I have always been drawn to the aspects that clay holds in comparison to other artistic mediums. The ways in which one can see the physical reaction of the touch of a hand offers a level of connection with the form that is unable to be achieved in other mediums. My forms are often utilitarian works because I desire for my work to be physically used by the collector. The intent is for the works to exist in a place in their life that they will interact with it regularly, both physically and visually.
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I find myself making connections in the environment that surround me. This instinct to make connections has provided me with a drive to incorporate them into my artwork, both visually and physically, leading me to heavily draw my inspiration for my work from the ways in which nature and the human form tend to mimic and echo one another in their intricacies and patterns. The structure of a bare tree resembles the interior of lungs, the roots and vascular systems of a flower mimic our own nervous systems and circulatory systems, and a bone cell under a microscope mimics the patterns in tree bark. In recognizing these connections, I use physical elements such as leaves, flowers, and bark in order to create surface activation and texture.
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In continuing to make these connections, I realize that they are engraved in me and my artistic practice. I realized how crocheted doilies echo this cycle and utilize them in combination with natural elements in the surface activation of my forms. The organically expanding patterns often used in crocheted doilies allude to the existence of the patterns of spiraling growth found in countless plants, the formation of shells, and even spider webs.
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The ways in which I draw inspiration from nature impacts the visual outcomes of my work, as well as the process and the materials used. By using red iron oxide in the surface as a form of activation and in order to create contrast, it is also acting as the thread that ties all of my forms together. My work is subtle, but not delicate, it is strong in both form and surface. By using both nature and crocheted doilies, they are combined in a manner that highlights and changes their delicacies into bold visual voices.