My sculptural ceramic work is an exploration of the underlying interconnectivity at the heart of nature. The rhythms of the breath, the tide, the seasons, birth to death, the ever-cycling spiral that roots and harmonizes all of nature - this cyclic, generative energy is the great unifier that connects all beings in a vast web of interrelationship, from the micro to the macro, all of the parts essential, all of the parts woven together to create a dynamic, fluid whole. I am interested in articulating a symbolic representation of the inherent interdependencies that connect all living beings in a vast web of complex systems and relationships. My intention is to emphasize the animating energy streaming through all forms of life. The repetition of certain motifs - such as the spiral, the vulva, fractal-like patterns, root systems, waterways and mycelial networks - all function to highlight the generative dynamism and interdependent unfolding fundamental to the cycles of life, death and rebirth.
These themes are not only articulated through the visual impact of my finished work, but are also reflected in the process I engage to create each piece. I experience my creative process as an ever-evolving relationship with clay, a communion between me and the elemental material of the Earth. This process reflects how all organic systems arise out of complex interrelationships. Indeed, a centralizing principle of interdependence is that emergent phenomena are the result of complex, dynamic and multi-dimensional systems of relationships. In much of my work, I begin with a structure that creates the foundation for the evolution of the piece. As I build and add clay, each new layer informs the building of the next. Each new layer is in response to the energy and movement of the previous. I respond to the tactility of the clay just as much as the clay responds to the moment-to-moment flow of my movements and choices. The forms that emerge are the co-creative fruition of this dynamic dialogue.
While my work with clay represents an immediate, embodied expression of the underlying processes of nature, my practice simultaneously draws from the taproot of humanity’s ancestral past. Creating ceramic out of the earthen material of clay is one of the earliest known forms of art, stretching back into the distant epoch of the Upper Paleolithic tens of thousands of years ago. Sculpting from clay and then tempering the finished form in the transformative belly of a fire yields a profound metamorphosis, as the molecular make-up of the clay is fundamentally altered into a new substance - ceramic. To ancient peoples, I imagine this transformative process must have seemed to hold a powerful kind of magic in which they were active co-participants. Fundamental to such ancient cultures, as well as surviving indigenous cultures, is an embodied animist worldview in which humanity is experienced as an inextricable extension of the Earth and Cosmos. As such, their art can be viewed as a tangible expression of a way of being in harmony with nature. Rooted in this lineage, my work holds a vision for the future of humanity - that those of us still living under the structures of patriarchy, capitalism and colonialism will reawaken to our inherent interdependence within nature, leading to a profound reorientation and transformation in how we live and relate with all beings.
My ongoing relationship with clay offers me a powerful mirror and asks me to reflect upon my way of relating in the world. How might I bring my choices into greater alignment with my love for the Earth? How might I more fully embody my values in the way that I live? What possibilities might be available for healing the fissures wrought by patriarchal, capitalist colonialism? By rendering a creation of beauty, my intention is to draw viewers in so that they want to look, and in so doing, invite them to address these same questions, questions that can often feel daunting to confront. My hope is that my work evokes in viewers a visceral felt-sense of connection with a greater whole; a felt-sense that we are not separate from nature, that nature isn’t something out there, but that we are nature. Through recognizing our shared connections, my hope is that viewers are inspired to reflect upon creative ways we might address the current ecological crisis and make changes toward restoring balance in our relationship with the Earth.