My works build a vulnerable, dream-like world where the viewer can
find connection and catharsis. Through a wide variety of media
I explore difficult emotions without judgment,
embracing truth, shame, and fear.
By focusing on slow, tactile practices like felting, quilting,
and hand-applied surface design to create anthropomorphized objects,
I build empathy for difficult experiences. The accumulation of material
in piecing and the coarse/fuzzy nature of felt exposes my self-image
as a Frankenstein-thing, informed by my compounded experience as an
LGBT person with serious mental illness. My cluttered, overflowing
visuals express overwhelm and suffocation, contrasted with a sense
of belonging and placement. I lean heavily on craft's history of
baked-in empathy, embodiments of care, and building upon the work of
one’s predecessors as a model for connection with others.
The chimeras and monsters in my work represent personal dehumanization
with humor and compassion. I want the viewer to sympathize with and see
themselves in these beasts as they cry, scream, and crave, scrambling to
find their place in an ever-shifting world. But sometimes they find friends
and are understood and loved for what they are, and through this understanding,
they symbolize transformation and transcendence. There is nothing wrong with
them or what they are becoming, and the works both chronicle and celebrate them,
affirming that it is okay to want and to be desperate and to be lost.