"It’s the clichés that cause the trouble….This hole in my heart is in the shape of you and no-one else can fit it. Why would I want them to?” -Jeanette Winterson. Written on the Body.
My work begins with the romantic discord between language, emotion and anatomy. My objects are created in an attempt to more fully encompass the feeling of dread in the pit of your stomach or the feeling of a racing heart juxtaposed with the actual physiological function. Like a scientist or a medical technician I am exploring, dissecting and altering materials. By using the inherent qualities of clay, wax and fiber in their most versatile state, pulling, twisting, carving and compressing, they begin to more fully embody emotions where words have left off. Focusing on internal parts of the body I touch on the essence of the figure without directly depicting it, suggesting a body through absence of a whole. The objects exist in their completed state as artifacts of their highly visceral creation. The act of making these objects becomes an illustration of the typically invisible emotion, specimens more powerful than the words alone.