ARTIST STATEMENT

Four-Fold Curtain 37" x 7" x 6"

My work is grounded in the histories of sculpture and women's work. It involves the investigation and juxtaposition of historically gender-specific techniques, such as crochet and blacksmithing, to question and comment on identity, duality, relationships and beauty. My current sculptures are an exploration of how to integrate these traditional processes with found industrial and domestic objects to challenge notions about balance and power, while ultimately producing an outcome with the elevated status of "Art." The found objects are intentionally chosen to introduce a physical component with a specific aesthetic and history of their own that informs my choice and use of other materials and techniques.

My investigations result in the making of unconventional implements that suggest multiple uses, both past and present. The interlaced, multi-layered structures in my work construct a filtering mechanism that changes the relationship of the viewer to the world because the act of having to look "through" alters the way things are seen. As objects, the sculptures are reminiscent of things that might be used to catch, strain or sift. For me then, the work becomes a corporal, yet abstract metaphor for what I emotionally and psychically allow in and what I keep out, and then what gets out and what never leaves.

My approach to this object-making completely intertwines process and product to integrate remnants of time, culture, personal history and environment. This keeps me engaged with a continually evolving dialogue with my interests in feminism, identity, a longstanding engagement with nature and ecological practice, and the exploration of how repetitive processes lead to transcendental and thus creative experience. These sculptures also speak about the history of craft in their attention to detail, and about how structural and material explorations serve my ability to simultaneously accommodate and transform the physical and conceptual substance of my work.