Headlands Center for the Arts

Artist Statement

I am interested in the role of objects in a good life. What could a thing do? I strive to make non-traumatized objects, or to make objects out of a non-traumatized part of myself. I like for the necessary horror to slip in naturally, in the form of a shadow working alongside of me. I create this working relationship by working in craft mediums without formal training. The dark part of my work is also the light, as it involves freedom, bravery, and humility – a willingness to make whatever I want. The cracks, the rips, the slips are the deaths that complete my happy struggles.

While At Headlands

My partner Chris Johanson and I are working together on a collaborative body of work that examines the objects that create domestic space. While at the Headlands we will focus on creating a piece of inside sky and a piece of inside ground, with furniture, ceramics, and paintings in the middle. We imagine quilting-collaging blue fabrics together for a ceiling and hooking yarn into a rug for the floor. The ceiling piece will be attached high, then drift down to a table where it is being worked. The earth will flow upward to the work surface. We would ask visitors to stop in and work with us, hooking and sewing for as long as they want. These studies will help us prepare for a larger collaborative exhibition that we will have at Fleisher Ollman gallery in Philadelphia in the fall.