Artist Statement

My work relies heavily on objects and textures that inspire my fascinations, and these are usually found in nature or combined with natural elements. I explore ideas of excess and consumption, but also beauty, which I believe can be found in abundance, even in the tragedy of our global predicament.
I am primarily a sculptor and a mold-maker, and I am currently exploring how translucent porcelain and light depict form and surface, and re-contextualize familiar objects. Snake skin, tree bark, lace, crab claw, tin foil, chicken skin--all textures and surfaces are transformed through illumination, and transcend their original context.
I enjoy employing humor in my work, playing with contradictions and absurdity. When I was young and worked for my father in our family taxidermy shop, it was very common for us to position an animal on a lovely piece of driftwood. Quail, turkeys, bobcat, rattlesnakes--even though you don't usually see these animals on an ocean beach, for some reason it's very acceptable to perch them on driftwood. The overall effect can be very humorous, and also beautiful. In many ways I'm still fastening death to driftwood.