My creative practice is propelled by the unexpected lines I see sewing the universe together. Sometimes close, sometimes loose, there are parallels and commonalities to be found. Bringing these threaded lines to light, whether it’s through a non-traditional book structure or by singing with a material voice be it paper or ink or glass, building and weaving a community that provides a space for the viewer to see themselves as part of a larger whole drives me to present these ideas. I want people to see that they have meaning and connection, and that they have agency in the outcomes.
This desire can require getting into the weeds, super-micro, learning about a gland in a bee that shares a commonality with the deep research of a California scientist’s inquiries into the possibility of humans having a true sixth-sense, or going macro and comparing an environmental cycle or astrological transit to the patterns of a pandemic and governmental revolutions. There is revelation in these patterns. Everyone falls somewhere in the interstices, or hops on the points which constellate these events. By pairing and comparing the unlikely, the web of possibilities is woven.
Without question, I am a devotee to layers of process. I love the meditative focus when typesetting. I love being in water when making paper and imagining how the light and color will move through kiln-fused glass. I’m always curious about how the making interacts with the act of bringing ideas to being. What I especially love is talking about these ideas with other people, asking them questions about their own process and allowing their thoughts to expand my own.
This is one of the reasons residencies are integral to my thought process. The language and words I hear, along with my imagining their physicality and presence, give my ideas a body to envision and inhabit. Yes, sometimes a blade of grass is just that, with its own intrinsic beauty, and for me it doubles as an entire universe. Getting into the studio and making/building/creating helps me focus the conceptual ideas into a (hopefully) beautiful artwork through which I can connect and communicate with others.